South Africa since their re- entry into cricket and a look into the future

I thought of looking at South Africa's re entry into cricket and how they may perform in the near future. As we know that they made a re entry into the international arena in 91/92 under the leadership of veteran all rounder C. Rice and one has to say that he did a good job on their first trip to India in 91/92 but as he was becoming older as expected he relinquished the captaincy to Wessels who was a real street fighter and had the experience of having played for Australia. He along with the then coach Procter made South Africa a tough side as can be seen by their performance in the 92 WC where they reached the semifinals, yes they lost the semifinals to England though one has to say that loss came in controversial circumstances on the basis of a stupid rain rule because of which they suddenly had to chase 22 from one ball, nevertheless it was a great WC for SA and they showed that they had a formidable outfit who can give any team a run for their money what with players like the fearsome quick Donald, lightning quick fielder Rhodes, solid opening pair of Hudson and Wessels, fine young batsmen like Cronje veterans like Kuiper, P.Kirsten, a very fine all rounder in Macmillan and steady type of hardworking medium pacers like G. Matthews, Pringle, Snell etc in the squad. One has to admit that they had a good team.

in 92/93 when they played India everyone expected SA to lose as Indians had a experienced side but South Africa showed that let it be tests or onedayers they are a different kettle of fish especially at home as the fearsome pair of Donald and the ever enigmatic, lightning quick, very much injury prone left armer Schultz just tormented the Indians in tests and they had good support from medium pacers like Matthews and their batting though a bit inconsistent at times, yet players like Cronje, Cullinan who in this series showed that he will be one of the mainstays of South africa's batting in the days to come along with Rhodes, Wessels and others made sure that India would be defeated both in the onedayers and tests. During that period they continued to show that they are a force to reckon with as they defeated Lanka in Lanka which is by no means a mean feat and surprised the Aussies at Sydney by winning that test match by just 5 runs as De villers stood up to the challenge and one has to say that he bowled beautifully as he got late swing to blow away the Aussies. In that series South Africa were hit by number of injuries but South Africans are always a proud team who are fighters which helped them to draw that series.

In 94 Wessels was on a decline and decided it was time to hand it over to Cronje. He too was a fine leader as under him South Africa were very successful especially in onedayers, also at that time Woolmer was appointed as a coach and he along Cronje proved to a successful combination as South Africa almost became invincible s at home by defeating teams like India, Pakistan, Westindies, England, New Zealand and away from home too they were a formidable unit and one good thing for South Africa at that time was that lots of younger players like Kallis, Pollock, Klusner, Adams, Boucher, Gibbs, G.Kirsten etc came through, especially Pollock who was we know became a superb all rounder in the years to come, Kallis, an outstanding batting all rounder, Gibbs, Kirsten who in the years to come would became a fine opening pair as well as Boucher a fine keeper helped South Africa to remain a formidable unit, yes they had their disappointments like losing to Westindies because of Lara's brilliance in the 96 WC and that incredible tie match in 99 WC when Klusner who was so good in that WC had a terrible mix up with Donald which made sure that Lance was run out leading to a tie against Aussies as they went out of the WC on the basis of SA having lost the match to OZ in the super six, they came unstuck against Aussies even in tests as they were beaten home and away in 97 mainly because of their players inability to play spin as their main players like Cullinan struggled against not just the magical leg spinner Warne but even against Bevan who with his left arm chinaman troubled them. Actually their bowling would stand up to the Aussie challenge as quicks like Donald, the enigmatic Schultz, the ever consistent Pollock would come with odd match winning spells, yes Waugh twins did score heavily for Australia against South Africa at that time but their bowling during 90's was strong. In 98 they also lost to England in England as Atherton played few gutsy knocks to keep South Africa at bay and this particular loss must have hurt Cronje big time as they were the favourites before the series started.

So that was almost one decade of South African cricket. It was a decade in which South Africa showed that isolation period had not dented them too much as they became a formidable unit under the able leadership of Wessels and of course Cronje. It was at that time when there was a storm brewing underneath which would hit South Africa very hard in the form of match fixing. Let us look at it as well as South African cricket's future in part 2 of this article.