How come South Africa never went through the minnow phase after re-entry?

[nballa]

They did not play international cricket for 20 yrs and straight off the bat start playing australia, windies, england and other top teams on equal terms. i don't remember them being considered outside the top 3 test playing nations after re-entry ever. compare that to sri lanka, india, pak, zim, bang who went through a few decades of minnow phases or more(some still going strong). how is that possible? first class cricket? They could have won the 1992 WC if not for a bad stroke of luck. how could they get the best openers, some of the best pacemen, best fielders all at once?

[azanian]

South Africa had an excellent domestic league.

[DomainK]

Not quite straight off, but they became a great team quite fast. Cricket was quite alive in SA. I remember how Donald was preparing to move to England to be able to play international cricket when Ali Bacher asked him to wait in SA.

[Sooda]

yeah even in the 80's they had come fine players likeVincent Van Der Bijl- best pacemen never to have played cricket. Or so were told.

[Karan114]

Very competitive domestic structure and plenty of high class players present throughout the apartheid period - some who would have been all time greats of the game had they been allowed to play.

[nballa]

Not quite straight off' date= but they became a great team quite fast. Cricket was quite alive in SA. I remember how Donald was preparing to move to England to be able to play international cricket when Ali Bacher asked him to wait in SA.

well i think it was straight off, re-entry in 1991 and WC semi finals in 1992 which they lost to the rain gods.

[Riley's Girl]

Cricket has always been big in SA. As people mentioned we had a strong domestic setup. Our players had the talent, the mental strenghth and the will to win. They had to go out there and prove to themselves and the world that they were worthy and they did.

[kabira]

they were top class team before getting banned. Always had good players, some of them played in England League.