A Decade in South African Cricket

30 December 2019, by: CricXtasy

A Decade of SA Cricket

The 2010 decade is coming to an end and it is a good time to recap how the last 10 years went for any team. For South Africa, it was a decade of two halves – pre and post the 2015 World Cup.

South African cricket looked strong and solid until the 2015 World Cup in Australia. No doubt, they did well even after that mega tournament but the slide downwards started with the semi-final selection saga standing out as a sore thumb. Since then, the team has been in a state of transition. The second half has been a lot bumpier than the first half of this decade.

At the moment, the Proteas are fourth in the ICC Test and T20I rankings while they are fifth in the ODI rankings. Despite an up and down second half of the 2010s, South Africa have been the second-best team across formats as far as the win-loss ratio is concerned.

They may not have played as many games as India, Australia or England but in the 366 that they have, they’ve won 209 of them and lost 129 – which makes it a win-loss ratio of 1.620 which is only bettered by India, who have a win-loss ratio of 1.950.

First things first, South Africa still don’t have any ICC title in the trophy cabinet. Yes, they did manage to win the Under-19 World Cup in 2014 but that’s a different story. The Proteas continue to walk around with the ‘C’ tag and have crumbled in crucial stages of each of the ICC tournaments.

There were nine ICC tournaments and South Africa made to the knockout stages of four of them. However, they couldn’t go beyond the semi-final in any of the tournaments. In the T20 World Cups (2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016), South Africa managed to reach the semi-final in just one of the tournaments.

In the two Champions Trophy tournaments, they reached the semi-final in 2013 only to lose to hosts England. In 2017, they were in a knockout situation against India with a win assuring them a spot in the semis but they lost that game as well.

In the 50-over World Cups, the story continued to be the same. In 2011, the Proteas lost the quarter-final before suffering a bigger heartbreak in 2015 when they lost a humdinger in the semi-final against New Zealand. The 2019 World Cup was probably their worst performance in an ICC tournament this decade. They won just three out of their nine games.

Overall, South Africa played 50 games in the ICC tournaments and won just 24.

From 2006, South Africa established themselves as one of the best touring teams in the world. What they started in the second half of the 2000s-decade continued in the first half of this decade. They continued to give home teams a run for their money in their own conditions. The Proteas did not lose an away series until November 2015 in India when they were spanked 3-0. That it was just their second series loss in five years spoke volumes about the side Proteas were.

South Africa struggled against England in this decade. After their win in England in 2012, the latter dominated the other two series they played. They won in South Africa 2-1 before winning again in England 3-1. However, they continued to do well in Test cricket until the retirements of AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel. Since then (April 2018), they have lost three out of the four-Test series’ that they’ve played.

Perhaps, the ODI format was the best for South Africa in this decade. Yes, they may not have won any major titles but in bilaterals, they have had major success in the 50-over format. With a win percentage of 60.64% in this format, the Proteas enjoyed a fruitful period. They have lost just nine bilateral series in this decade and never lost two ODI series’ in a row.

By consistently winning ODI’s in bilaterals, South Africa created winning streaks as well. They won seven series in a row between August 2015 and May 2017 before England handed them a 2-1 loss before the Champions Trophy. They currently hold a five-series winning streak as well and they last lost a bilateral ODI series back in February 2018.

Having not been able to qualify for the semi-finals in three out of the four World T20s would be a big disappointment for the Proteas. They have tended to blow hot and cold in the shortest format throughout the 2010s-decade. However, they have managed to win 51 out of the 89 games that they’ve played. They have won 17 out of the 32 T20I bilateral series they’ve played. Four of those have come since October last year and in fact, they’ve won nine T20Is and lost only two in these last 14 months.

A lot can change over a decade and that’s what happened with South Africa. They walked into the decade with a solid, strong core. The likes of Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. Yes, retirements were bound to come but how A lot can change over a decade and that’s what happened with South Africa. They walked into the decade with a solid, strong core. The likes of Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

Yes, retirements were bound to come but how the transition phase goes generally defines a team. With that core, South Africa were brilliant ad they kept winning. Both Smith and Kallis played until 2014 and scored almost the same number of runs.

Amla was the highest run-getter across formats while de Villiers may have not been the leading run-scorer, he did manage to have a big impact. The duo are two of the three players who have scored more than 10,000 runs across formats in this decade for South Africa. The other is Faf du Plessis whose introduction brought some calmness in the middle-order. However, two of those three have retired from international cricket. Quinton de Kock has been a prolific run-getter as well and brings fresh hope for the future.

Steyn and Morkel dominate the bowling chart for the Proteas in this decade. They have 450 and 435 wickets respectively across all formats. However, Morkel has retired from all formats and Steyn has quit the longest format to prolong his career. The latter was constantly troubled with injury issues over the second half of the decade which did affect South Africa quite a bit. He broke down a lot on away tours and that hurt the team.

Kagiso Rabada, a product of that under-19 World Cup win, came out and emerged as the leader of the attack. He is now the premier fast bowler across formats for South Africa and is one of the leading pacers in the world as well. Vernon Philander continues to be the preferred choice in Test cricket but at 34, he has indicated he will retire from international cricket after the Test series against England.

Currently, South Africa are going through a transition phase. A lot of stars have bid farewell to the game and the Proteas are left with a core of Aiden Markram, de Kock and Rabada going into the next decade. They need to rebuild around these three big stars and Faf du Plessis as long as he stays with the likes of Temba Bavuma, Lungi Ngidi, Theunis De Bruyn and Zubayr Hamza certain to be around.

It was probably the worst decade for South African cricket as far as the Kolpak is concerned. Kolpak deals were signed left, right and centre. One of the reasons for South Africa’s decline could be put down to the Kolpak as well.

Multiple players took that route for various reasons. Rilee Rossouw, Colin Ingram, Richard Levi, Hardus Viljoen, Simon Harmer, Stiaan van Zyl, Kyle Abbott, Merchant de Lange, Duanne Olivier and others have taken the Kolpak route and have set their bases in England.

There are problems all around South African cricket at the moment. After an under-par performance at the World Cup, Ottis Gibson was sacked as head coach. Since then, the team has been without a coach as well. Enoch Nkwe was the interim director of cricket during the underwhelming tour of India.

The appointment of a director of cricket has been a complete mess. Graeme Smith had shown interest in taking up the job before withdrawing his name as he wasn’t sure that he’ll get the freedom to conduct things the way he wanted to. He then went on to eventually sign up for the role, albeit for three months. Soon after, Mark Boucher was named as Proteas Team Director, he will be joined by Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt in the Proteas coaching set up.

A few board members have stepped down as well. Sponsorships have been under a big cloud and have called for urgent meetings. Cricket South Africa (CSA) have arranged for important meetings to address and resolve the major controversies going around. The South Africa Cricketers Association (SACA) have also scheduled meetings and it could possibly lead to a players strike as well because of an alleged infringement of the commercial rights of players by CSA.

A lot is going on in South African cricket at the moment. This is a team in transition and they wouldn’t want off-field issues to hog all the limelight. As we head into another decade, these issues need to be sorted out to bring glory days back to South African cricket.

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