South Africa Cricket Team

Captain: Temba Bavuma (Tests, ODIs), Aiden Markram (T20Is)
Coaches: Shukri Conrad (Tests), Ashwell Prince (Test batting coach), Piet Botha (Test bowling coach), Rob Walter (white-ball coach), JP Duminy (white-ball batting coach), Eric Simons (white-ball bowling coach)
First international match: 1889
Cricket board: Cricket South Africa (CSA)
ICC titles: 1

South Africa were the third country to play international cricket after England and Australia, in 1889, but had a tough start. It was 17 years before they won a Test and almost 70 before they were regularly beating their opposition. The mid to late 1960s, a time when Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Mike Procter and Ali Bacher were in action, marked a first golden age, albeit one that excluded South Africa's majority population.

South Africa was isolated for two decades on account of apartheid, and when they returned to cricket in 1991, the game had expanded and changed to include white-ball cricket. South Africa soon proved a competitive force in shorter formats and have reached five ODI World Cup and two T20 World Cup semi-finals, but are yet to win either title.

Their biggest successes have been in Tests, in which they were undefeated in away series from 2007 to 2015 - towards the end of which period they became the the No. 1-ranked side in the world. In 2012, Hashim Amla became the first South African to hit a Test triple-century as South Africa beat England in England - the high-water mark of Graeme Smith's captaincy.

Smith is the most successful Test captain in history, with more wins (53) than any other, while Jacques Kallis is among the game's greatest allrounders, having made more than 10,000 Test runs and taken over 250 wickets in both Tests and ODIs.

South Africa have always had a strong fast-bowling core, from the time of Shaun Pollock to Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada. And in the 21st century they produced a batter who revolutionised the craft with his 360-degree approach to strokeplay: AB de Villiers.

On-field success came against the background of administrative turmoil in the 2000s. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, CSA circled through several CEOs, and a painful Social Justice and Nation-Building process, to better understand the impact of racism and discrimination on the game. A target system remains in place in order to achieve a more representative team.

Tests: 3
ODIs: 4
T20Is: 6

Tests: Most runs| Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
ODIs: Most runs| Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals
T20Is: Most runs| Most wickets | Highest totals | Lowest totals

1906: First Test match win, Johannesburg and Test series win

1932: First away Test series win, New Zealand

1991: First international match after readmission to international cricket following ban for apartheid, Kolkata

1998: ICC Knockout Trophy (Champions Trophy) win, Dhaka

2012: Ranked No. 1 in all three formats