South Africa's best XI since readmission

Seldom has a cricket team divided opinion as much as the South African national side. Bustling with talent and possessing an arsenal worthy of beating the best, the team has still not been able to reach the potential it has always promised to achieve.The ramifications of the apartheid rule in the politically influenced South Africa were huge on the game in the country. In 1970, the ICC decided to ban the side from international cricket owing to their policy of fielding just white players and competing against just white teams.Since their comeback in 1991, the side has blown hot and cold, but has never managed to go the whole distance in any major ICC tournament, especially after the turn of this millennium. It has been 25 years since South Africa made a comeback to the international scene. Here are the eleven best players for South Africa since 1991.

Note: The team has not been made with any particular format in mind. It is the list of South Africa’s eleven best players since being re-admitted.

Graeme Smith (Captain)

Not the most elegant of left-handers to have graced the game, Graeme Smith was more power than poise. But then, he was not just another South African opener in the 2000s. Smith was the face of South Africa’s renaissance after the match-fixing saga threatened to derail their progress as a resurging side after their readmission in 1992.

Having been chosen to captain the side at the age of 22, Smith’s headstrong approach and canny changes laid the platform for the team to become the first to reach the top of the rankings in all three formats.

As a batsman, Smith was rock-solid at the top, relying on orthodox ways to get his runs, even in the shorter formats. He had the ability to sniff out gaps and use the pace of the fast bowlers to collect boundaries in the powerplay overs.

Hashim Amla

Amla might still have a lot left in his tank, but the kind of impact that he has created since his debut in 2004 has been everlasting on South Africa’s cricketing books. The first batsman to score a triple-century for the Proteas, Amla is an elegant player who has a strong technique and a heavy range of strokes to succeed in any format.

More than that, it is his never-ending hunger to get runs that has seen Amla become the fastest batsman to 5000 runs in ODIs. In Tests, it is the same hunger that helps him attain huge scores at the top of the order, often single-handedly powering the team to massive totals. He does all this with a calm and measured approach, making him a dependable bat and an inseparable part of the Proteas’ side.

Jacques Kallis

The magnanimity of Kallis’ contribution cannot be measured by statistics alone, although the mind-numbing numbers have already escalated him to the level of cricket’s all-time greats. Possessing an impeccable technique, coupled with a temperament very few could match, Kallis held the Proteas batting together for close to two decades. Add to that his nagging medium pace and one of the best pair of hands in the slips, and you’ve got one of the most complete cricketers since Sir Garfield Sobers.

AB De Villiers

An entertaining freak who never ceases to amaze, AB de Villiers is a gift to world cricket, bringing much-needed craziness to the game with his astonishing range of strokes. He becomes a completely different player in Tests, trading the eye-catching shots with traditional technique. His cover drive is as much a treat to watch, as his ramp shot over fine leg.

He contributes to the team in more ways than one, most distinctly with his electric fielding anywhere on the ground, even behind the stumps where he has kept wickets for quite a while. As a captain, he monitors his troops shrewdly, but the constant pain of missing out on an ICC trophy is a dent in an otherwise scintillating career.

Jonty Rhodes

One of the few cricketers ever who could have made it to an international side without needing to contribute with bat or ball, Jonty Rhodes’ single-handedly catapulted fielding standards, making it as important an aspect as batting and bowling.

Naturally athletic and lightning fast, Jonty, stationed at his favoured backward point position, could gobble almost anything that came off the bat. Not to undermine his batting, which was enterprising and in T20-mould, years before the shortest format even took birth.

Lance Klusener

The shapeshifter who could fit anywhere in the team, Klusener was the all-rounder every team craves for, doling out game-changing knocks down the order with a batting stance that would have looked more at home on a baseball pitch. He started off as a fast bowler, but quickly expanded his trade, playing crucial innings in the final overs, including the one in their heartbreaking loss against Australia in the 1999 World Cup semi-final.

As a bowler, Klusener was crafty, bowling medium pace, sometimes spin, by rolling his fingers over and taking the pace off the ball. He dropped pace as injuries kept mounting, but remained a vital cog in the team through the turn of the millennium.

Mark Boucher

If it weren’t for a freak eye injury at the fag end of his career, Mark Boucher would have finished with more than 1000 international dismissals, a feat that has never been achieved. Before retiring in 2012, Boucher effected 998 dismissals behind the stumps, earning a reputation of being one of the safest glovesmen on the back of a 15-year international career.

Boucher was also a responsible batsman who could change gears at will, as was displayed when he scored a 44-ball 100 against Zimbabwe, the then second fastest hundred in ODIs. When the team looked to have lost the script in the 434-438 match at Wanderers in 2006, Boucher held his nerves and carried the team home.

Shaun Pollock

Pollock could well have pulled off the role of Hawkeye in Marvel Comics, for his pin-point accuracy with the ball was akin to the superhero’s prowess with the bow and arrow. Bowling at a niggling pace with ample amounts of movement, Pollock perfectly complemented the other express pacers that the Proteas carries in their ranks.

His batting was in stark contrast, yielding the long handle to good effect, although he could have achieved much more with the bat than what he eventually did. He had a troubled time as SA’s captain after taking the reins from Hansie Cronje, but was a respected figure in the team, and an ideal mentor to the young fast bowlers.

Dale Steyn

Breathing fire and spewing venom, Steyn is a throwback to the nasty genuine pace bowlers of the years gone by, hurling deliveries at batsmen at express speeds. What sets Steyn apart is his ability to conjure extravagant movement without spraying his radar one bit. His accuracy is his biggest strength.

Be it with the red ball or white ball, old or new, Steyn is equally effective, possessing the brains to outwit the batsmen when the pitch is not conducive.

Makhaya Ntini

An earnest hard worker who could bowl all day without dropping even a yard of pace, Ntini’s relentless efforts reaped rich dividends for South Africa during his 13-year long career. The first ethnically black cricketer to play for South Africa, Ntini was handpicked from a village in Cape Province. The journey makes his achievements all the more sweet.

He wasn’t express like an Allan Donald, but kept bowling in the right areas without fail, often tiring the batsmen out with his crisp bowling.

Allan Donald

A zinc coated face and a nasty attitude towards the batsmen made Donald one of the most recognisable pacemen of the 90s. “White Lightning” brought back menace in fast bowling after it had encountered a dip, post the high-flying pacers of the 70s and 80s.

Possessing the ability to jag the ball both into and away from the batsman, that too at his pace, Donald was South Africa’s biggest weapon after their comeback to international cricket. Part of that led to him being over-bowled and getting injured often, restricting his career to just 72 Tests. Yet, it was enough to create several everlasting memories, such as his battle with Michael Atherton in 1998.