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The Proteas have become one of the most successful brand names in the world of cricket since the national team was launched under that title at the birth of Cricket in South Africa in 1991. For an organization that is only 17 years old, the achievements have been quite staggering. For most of that period the Proteas have been the No 2 ranked Test and ODI team in the world. They are currently the No. 1 ranked ODI team and are breathing down the necks of Australia as the No. 1 ranked Test team following an unbeaten run of 10 successive series including away wins over both England and Australia. Had it not been for Australia producing one of the great teams in the history of world cricket, then the Proteas could well have enjoyed a sustained run at the top already. They have reached the semi-finals three times and the quarter-finals once in the five World Cups in which they have competed which underlines their successful consistency. The Proteas have a very high winning percentage well into the 60s in ODI cricket while the winning percentage in Test match cricket is still a very healthy 48 percent with 81 matches won out of 169 played. CSA have been particularly fortunate in the captains at the helm for most of this period with all of Graeme Smith (50) Shaun Pollock (53.84) and Hansie Cronje (50.94) having a success ratio of 50 percent or better – something that is relatively rare at Test match level. The birth of the new South Africa has also enabled the Proteas to expand their list of traditional rivals to include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Zimbabwe in addition to the ‘old foes’ from Australia, England and New Zealand. It has also given South Africa four new Test match venues at SuperSport Park (Centurion), Senwes Park (Potchefstroom), Buffalo Park (East London) and OUTsurance Oval (Bloemfontein). In addition ODIs have been played at Boland Bank Park (Paarl), De Beers Diamond Oval (Kimberley) and Willowmoore Park (Benoni). A total of 67 players have been capped by CSA at Test match level, 96 at ODI level and 35 in the new Pro20 format. These players have totally re-written the record books of South African international cricket. Highlights have included two world batting partnerships (415 for the first wicket between Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie against Bangladesh and 195 for the ninth wicket between Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox against Pakistan). Eight of South Africa’s 10 wicket all-time partnership records have now been established under the banner of Cricket South Africa. Boucher is the most successful wicketkeeper statistically the world has ever seen with more than 400 dismissals and 4 000 runs at Test match level and he is on target to become the only one to complete 500 dismissals. Jacques Kallis ranks among the most successful Test match and ODI all-rounders of all time. He has scored 10 000 runs in both formats of the game to put him in very distinguished and exclusive company and is the only South African to have taken more than 100 catches at Test match level to go with his 10 000 runs and 250 wickets – a superb treble. He is also the only South African to have scored a century and taken five wickets in an innings on two occasions. Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Allan Donald are all in the world’s elite group of those who have taken 330 Test match wickets while Ntini is the only South African to have taken 10 wickets in a Test match on four occasions, including being the only one to do so at Lord’s, and he also holds the best individual return of 13/132 against the West Indies. Pollock has achieved the notable double of 3 000 Test runs and more than 400 wickets. Another fast bowler, Dale Steyn, recently broke the South African record for getting to 100 Test wickets and 150 Test wickets the quickest and he also has the second highest strike rate of all time (behind England’s George Lohmann from the 1890s) of balls per wicket. Graeme Smith holds South Africa’s individual Test record score of 277 against England at Edgbaston and also the highest score by a visiting batsman at Lord’s of 259, beating a Don Bradman record in the process! His four Test double centuries also put him well up the all-time world rankings. Herschelle Gibbs, Smith, Gary Kirsten and Kallis (in ascending order) are the four South Africans to have scored more than 5 000 Test runs while Kallis (30) and Kirsten (21) are the leading centurions. There are bound to be many more world landmarks to come as the 2008 under-19 side reached the final of the ICC under-19 World Cup, emulating the performance of the class of 2002. |
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