Team name	South Africa
Colour	green
Test status year	1889
First test match	v England at Port Elizabeth, March 1889
Current captain	Graeme Smith (Test) AB de Villiers (ODI & T20)
Current official rank	2nd (Test) 2nd (ODI) 2nd(T20)
Number of tests	344
Test matches this year	5
Current coach	Gary Kirsten
Assistant/bowling coach	allan donald
Win/loss record	125/124
Most recent test match	vs Sri Lanka at Johannesburg
Win/loss record this year	0/0
Asofdate	06 June 2011 }}

The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.

South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status. Through the mid-nineties to the present, the Proteas have been labeled as the archetypal chokers in international cricket, especially due to their not winning a Cricket World Cup - even after being one of the favourites - as well as their general inability to win the big matches on the big occasions.

As of 11 November 2011, the South African team has played 359 Test matches, winning 126 (35.09%), losing 124 (34.54%) and drawing 109 (30.36%) of its games.

As of 11 November 2011, the South African team has played 462 ODI Matches, winning 288 (62.33%), losing 157 (33.98%), drawing 5 (1.08%) and getting a "No Result" in 12 (2.60%) of its games.

History[link]

The South African cricket team toured England in 1947. At Nottingham, Captain Alan Melville and vice-captain, Dave Nourse achieved a Test match record for a third wicket partnership of 319. The following year Nourse, 38 year old captain of Natal, was appointed Captain for the 1948 MCC Test matches in South Africa.

In 1970, the ICC voted to suspend South Africa from international cricket indefinitely because of its government's policy of apartheid, an overtly racist policy, which led them to play only against the white nations (England, Australia, New Zealand), and field only white players. This decision excluded players such as Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards and Mike Procter from partaking in international Test Cricket. It would also cause the emigration of future stars like Allan Lamb and Robin Smith, who both played for England, and Kepler Wessels, who initially played for Australia, before returning to South Africa.

The ICC reinstated South Africa as a Test nation in 1991 after the deconstruction of apartheid, and the team played its first sanctioned match since 1970 (and its first ever One-Day International) against India in Calcutta on 10 November 1991. South Africa's first test match after re-admission was against the West Indies in April 1992. The match was played in Bridgetown, Barbados and South Africa lost by 52 runs.

Since South Africa have been reinstated they have achieved mixed success, and hosted the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup in 2003. However, it is widely believed the sides containing the likes of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Gary Kirsten and Hansie Cronje grossly underachieved, gaining a reputation as "chokers", due to them reaching the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup three times, but failing to progress into the finals, when Herschelle Gibbs dropped Australian captain Steve Waugh in 1999 in a Super Six match. In the second part of the 1990s, South Africa had the highest winning percentage in ODIs of any team, but they were knocked out of the 1996 World Cup in the quarter-finals, and then were eliminated on countback after tying their semi-final against Australia in 1999. In 2003, South Africa were one of the favourites but were eliminated by one run in the group stages after they had mistakenly counted the number of runs they needed.

They have also had bad press for failing in vital matches in global tournaments including the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.

With Donald retiring, Cronje banned for match-fixing and later died in a plane crash, and Pollock also retiring from international cricket, the team has once again changed shape. It is currently captained by Graeme Smith, although following injuries to Smith and Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince deputised as Test captain on 12 July 2006. At the age of 29, he became the first non-white man to captain the once all-white South African cricket team. Due to a racial quota policy, the side was once required to contain black players, unlike the past. However, that policy was rescinded in 2007.

Tournaments[link]

South Africa has a record of failing to win major tournaments and is much-maligned because of this. The 1992 Cricket World Cup, for example, featured a rain-affected semi-final played before the introduction of the Duckworth-Lewis rain rule. South Africa needed 22 runs from 13 balls when rain intervened. After the delay they were left in the situation of requiring 22 runs from one ball in order to progress. In 1996 they were eliminated in the quarter-finals despite being one of the fancied teams and having qualified first in their group. At the 1999 Cricket World Cup, South Africa played against Australia in the last Super Six match as well as the knock-out semi-final. Australia defeated the Proteas in the Super Six match and recorded a thrilling tie in the semi-final, which was enough to knock the Africans out of the tournament since Australia had previously beaten them (in the match immediately beforehand). It is in the Super Six match that Steve Waugh is reported to have told Herschelle Gibbs "Mate, you just dropped the World Cup" when the latter dropped him en route to a match-winning century, a comment which has been denied by Waugh himself in interviews. The image of the crestfallen South Africans following the run-out of their last batsman Allan Donald while the Australians celebrated in a huddle has become an iconic sporting image.

South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, but failed to progress beyond the group stage due to a misunderstanding of how many runs they needed to score in a rain-affected run chase. As a result of this, Shaun Pollock resigned as captain and was replaced by young batsman Graeme Smith, although Pollock continued to play for the team. Under Smith's leadership, South Africa has achieved some success, although they have been hampered by the retirements of many star players, including fast bowler Allan Donald and one-day specialist Jonty Rhodes. As a result, they had a poor 2004, only winning against the West Indies.

In the 2007 World Cup they had a rollercoaster ride that included dominant wins over England, the West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland, and a narrow win over Sri Lanka, but devastating losses to Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh that cost them the number one ranking. Then they bowed out in the semifinals with their lowest ever score in a World Cup as Australia bowled them out for 149 and won by 7 wickets.

In the 2011 World Cup, South Africa topped Group B with the distinction of bowling out every side they played within the 50 over limit. In the quarter final they were beaten by New Zealand after suffering a dramatic collapse and losing eight wickets for 68 runs. This defeat means that South Africa have never won a knockout game in the Cricket World Cup and they remain widely regarded as chokers.

They also hold the record of the highest successful run chase and made the highest total (the latter record has been surpassed) in One-Day Internationals (438-9 in 49.5 overs), in an iconic match against Australia on 12 March 2006. This game is considered by many to be the greatest One-Day International ever played.

South Africa beat Netherlands by 231 runs in Mohali in Group matches in ICC World Cup 2011, The 231-run win is the fourth largest margin of victory for any team in World Cups and the largest for South Africa in World Cups. It is also the second largest margin of victory for South Africa in ODIs on 3 March 2011. The 87-run stand between JP Duminy and Colin Ingram is the highest for the sixth wicket for South Africa in World Cups. The highest sixth-wicket stand for South Africa in ODIs is the 137 between Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock against Zimbabwe in 1997. The triumph is South Africa's seventh by a fringe of hundred or more runs in World Cups.

Tournament history[link]

World Cup[link]

For World Cups from 1975 to 1987 inclusive, South Africa were not an ICC member, and therefore ineligible to compete in the tournament.

1992: Semi Finals - vs England

1996: Quarter Finals - vs West Indies

1999: Semi Finals - vs Australia

2003: First round

2007: Semi Finals - vs Australia

2011: Quarter finals - vs New Zealand

ICC World Twenty20[link]

2007: Super 8

2009: Semi-Finals vs Pakistan

2010: Super 8

ICC Champions Trophy[link]

1998: Winners

2000: Semi Finals

2002: Semi Finals

2004: First round

2006: Semi Finals

2009: First round

Commonwealth Games[link]

1998: Gold medal

Personnel[link]

This lists all the players who have played for South Africa in the past year, and the form(s) in which they have played. Players in bold hold a central contract awarded by Cricket South Africa. Correct as of 31 March 2012.

Key

S/N = Shirt number

BatsmanBatsmanBatsmanBatsmanBatsmanBatsmanBatsman

Name			! Batting Style	! Bowling Style	! Domestic team	! Forms	! S/N
Test Captain and Opening Batsman
Graeme Smith		Left-Handed Bat ||	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Cape Cobras	Test, ODI, T20I	15
colspan="7">ODI and Twenty20 Captain and Wicket-keeper
AB de Villiers	<		Right-Handed Bat ||	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium	Titans cricket team>Titans	Test, ODI, T20I	17
colspan="7">Batsmen
Hashim Amla	<		Right-Handed Bat ||	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium	Dolphins cricket team>Dolphins	Test, ODI, T20I	1
Farhaan Behardien	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast-medium	Titans cricket team>Titans	T20I	24
Jean-Paul Duminy	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Cape Cobras	Test, ODI, T20I	21
Francois du Plessis	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Leg Spin>Right-Arm Leg Break	Titans cricket team>Titans	ODI	18
Colin Ingram (cricketer)	Colin Ingram	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Leg Spin>Right-Arm Leg Break	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	ODI, T20I	41
Richard Levi	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium	Cape Cobras	T20I	88
David Miller (cricketer)	David Miller	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Dolphins cricket team>Dolphins	ODI, T20I	36
Justin Ontong	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Cape Cobras	T20I	14
Alviro Petersen	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium	Highveld Lions cricket team>Lions	Test, ODI	73
Ashwell Prince	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Left arm orthodox spin>Slow Left-Arm Orthodox	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	Test	50
Jacques Rudolph	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Leg Spin>Right-Arm Leg Break	Titans cricket team>Titans	Test
colspan="7">Wicket-keepers
Mark Boucher	<		Right-Handed Bat ||	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	Test, ODI	9
Heino Kuhn	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat		Titans cricket team>Titans	T20I	20
Thami Tsolekile	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Highveld Lions cricket team>Lions	-	10
Dane Vilas	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat		Cape Cobras	T20I
colspan="7">All rounders
Johan Botha (cricketer)	Johan Botha	<		Right-Handed Bat ||	Off-spin>Right-Arm Off-Break	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	ODI, T20I	22
Jacques Kallis	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast-Medium	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	Test, ODI, T20I	3
Albie Morkel	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium-Fast	Titans cricket team>Titans	ODI, T20I	81
Vernon Philander	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast-medium	Cape Cobras	Test, ODI	24
colspan="7">Pace Bowlers
Marchant de Lange	<		Right-Handed Bat ||	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast	Titans cricket team>Titans	Test, ODI, T20I	90
Morné Morkel	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast	Titans cricket team>Titans	Test, ODI, T20I	65
Wayne Parnell	|	Batsman>Left-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Left-Arm Medium-Fast	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	ODI, T20I	94
Dale Steyn	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Fast	Cape Cobras	Test, ODI, T20I	8
Juan Theron	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Right-Arm Medium-Fast	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	T20I	32
Lonwabo Tsotsobe	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Fast bowling>Left-Arm Fast-Medium	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	Test, ODI, T20I	68
colspan="7">Slow Bowlers
Robin Peterson		Left-Handed Bat ||	Left arm orthodox spin>Slow Left-Arm Orthodox	Warriors cricket team>Warriors	ODI, T20I	13
Imran Tahir	|	Batsman>Right-Handed Bat	Leg spin>Right-Arm Leg Break	Dolphins cricket team>Dolphins	Test	99

Coaching Staff[link]

Head Coach: Gary Kirsten

Assistant Coach: Russell Domingo

Bowling Coach: Allan Donald

Mental Conditioning Coach: Paddy Upton

Team's Manager: Mohammed Moosaje

See also[link]

History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)

History of Test cricket (1890 to 1900)

International cricket in South Africa from 1971 to 1981

Notes[link]

External links[link]

United Cricket Board of South Africa

Official Facebook page

South Africa Cricket Team Information

National Category:National cricket teams Category:South Africa in international cricket Cricket

bn:দক্ষিণ আফ্রিকার জাতীয় ক্রিকেট দল de:Südafrikanische Cricket-Nationalmannschaft fr:Équipe d'Afrique du Sud de cricket gd:Sgioba nàiseanta criogaid Afraga-a-Deas hi:दक्षिण अफ़्रीका क्रिकेट टीम it:Nazionale di cricket del Sudafrica kn:ದಕ್ಷಿಣ ಆಫ್ರಿಕ ಕ್ರಿಕೆಟ್ ತಂಡ ml:ദക്ഷിണാഫ്രിക്ക ദേശീയ ക്രിക്കറ്റ് ടീം mr:दक्षिण आफ्रिका क्रिकेट nl:Zuid-Afrikaans cricketelftal ta:தென்னாபிரிக்கத் துடுப்பாட்ட அணி ur:جنوبی افریقہ قومی کرکٹ ٹیم

Conventional long name
Common name	South Africa
Image coat	Coat of arms of South Africa.svg
Symbol type	Coat of arms
National motto	''''(ǀXam)"Unity In Diversity"
National anthem	National anthem of South Africa
Capital	Pretoria (executive)Bloemfontein (judicial)Cape Town (legislative)
Largest city	Johannesburg (2006)
Official languages
Ethnic groups	79.5% Black 9.0% White 9.0% Coloured 2.5% Asian
Demonym	South African
Government type	Constitutional parliamentary republic
Leader title1	President
Leader name1	Jacob Zuma
Leader title2	Deputy President
Leader name2	Kgalema Motlanthe
Leader title3	NCOP Chairman
Leader name3	M. J. Mahlangu
Leader title4	National Assembly Speaker
Leader name4	Max Sisulu
Leader title5	Chief Justice
Leader name5	Mogoeng Mogoeng
Legislature	Parliament
Upper house	National Council of Provinces
Lower house	National Assembly
Sovereignty type	Independence
Sovereignty note
Established event1	Union
Established date1	31 May 1910
Established event2	Statute of Westminster
Established date2	11 December 1931
Established event3	Republic
Established date3	31 May 1961
Established date5
Area rank	25th
Area magnitude	1 E12
Area km2	1,221,037
Area sq mi	471,443
Percent water	Negligible
Population estimate	50,586,757
Population estimate rank	24th
Population estimate year	2011
Population census	44,819,778
Population census year	2001
Population density km2	41.4
Population density rank	169th
Gdp ppp	$555.134 billion
Gdp ppp year	2011
Gdp ppp per capita	$10,973
Gdp nominal	$408.074 billion
Gdp nominal year	2011
Gdp nominal per capita	$8,066
Gini	63.1
Gini rank	2nd
Gini year	2009
Gini category	very high
Hdi	0.619
Hdi rank	123rd
Hdi year	2011
Hdi category	medium
Currency	Rand
Currency code	ZAR
Time zone	SAST
Utc offset	+2
Drives on	left
Cctld	.za
Calling code	+27
Footnote7	}}

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.

South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.

About 79.5% of the South African population is of black African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status. South Africa also contains the largest communities of European, Asian, and racially mixed ancestry in Africa.

Today South Africa enjoys a relatively stable mixed economy that draws on its fertile agricultural lands, abundant mineral resources, tourist attractions, and highly evolved intellectual capital. Greater political equality and economic stability, however, do not necessarily mean social tranquility. South African society at the start of the 21st century continued to face steep challenges: high crime rates, ethnic tensions, great disparities in housing and educational opportunities, and the AIDS pandemic. It is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank, one of only four countries in Africa in this category (the others being Botswana, Gabon and Mauritius). It has the largest economy in Africa, and the 28th-largest in the world. About a quarter of the population is unemployed and lives on less than US $1.25 a day.

History[link]

Prehistoric finds[link]

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world. Extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has been termed the Cradle of Humankind. The sites include Sterkfontein, which is one of the richest hominin fossil sites in the world. Other sites include Swartkrans, Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. The first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child was found near Taung in 1924. Further hominin remains have been recovered from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo, Cornelia and Florisbad in the Free State, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, Klasies River Mouth in eastern Cape and Pinnacle Point, Elandsfontein and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape. These sites suggest that various hominin species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago starting with ''Australopithecus africanus''. These were succeeded by various species, including ''Australopithecus sediba'', ''Homo ergaster'', ''Homo erectus'', ''Homo rhodesiensis'', ''Homo helmei'' and modern humans, ''Homo sapiens''.

Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River (now the northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe) by the fourth or fifth century CE. (See Bantu expansion.) They displaced, conquered and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu slowly moved south. The earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people. The Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations displaced or assimilated earlier peoples, who often had hunter-gatherer societies.

Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. At the time of European contact, the dominant indigenous peoples were Bantu-speaking peoples who had migrated from other parts of Africa about one thousand years before. The two major historic groups were the Xhosa and Zulu peoples.

In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European voyage to land in southern Africa. On 4 December, he landed at Walfisch Bay (now known as Walvis Bay in present-day Namibia). This was south of the furthest point reached in 1485 by his predecessor, the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão (Cape Cross, north of the bay). Dias continued down the western cost of southern Africa. After 8 January 1488, prevented by storms from proceeding along the coast, he sailed out of sight of land and passed the southernmost point of Africa without seeing it. He reached as far up the eastern coast of Africa as, what he called, ''Rio do Infante'', probably the present-day Groot River, in May 1488, but on his return he saw the Cape, which he first named ''Cabo das Tormentas'' (Cape of Storms). His King, John II, renamed the point ''Cabo da Boa Esperança'', or Cape of Good Hope, as it led to the riches of the East Indies. Dias' feat of navigation was later memorialised in Luís de Camões' epic Portuguese poem, ''The Lusiads'' (1572).

Colonization[link]

In 1652, a century and a half after the discovery of the Cape Sea Route, Jan van Riebeeck established a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope, at what would become Cape Town, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch transported slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India as labour for the colonists in Cape Town. As they expanded east, the Dutch settlers met the southwesterly migrating Xhosa people in the region of the Fish River. A series of wars, called the Cape Frontier Wars, were fought over conflicting land and livestock interests.

The discovery of diamonds, and later gold, was one of the catalysts that triggered the 19th-century conflict known as the Anglo-Boer War, as the Boers (original Dutch, Flemish, German, and French settlers) and the British fought for the control of the South African mineral wealth. Cape Town became a British colony in 1806. European settlement expanded during the 1820s as the Boers and the British 1820 Settlers claimed land in the north and east of the country. Conflicts arose among the Xhosa, Zulu, and Afrikaner groups who competed for territory.

Great Britain took over the Cape of Good Hope area in 1795, to prevent it from falling under control of the French First Republic, which had invaded the Dutch Republic. Given its standing interests in Australia and India, Great Britain wanted to use Cape Town as an interim port for its merchants' long voyages. The British returned Cape Town to the Dutch Batavian Republic in 1803, the Dutch East India Company having effectively gone bankrupt by 1795. The British finally annexed the Cape Colony in 1806 and continued the frontier wars against the Xhosa; the British pushed the eastern frontier through a line of forts established along the Fish River. They consolidated the territory by encouraging British settlement. Due to pressure of abolitionist societies in Britain, the British parliament stopped its global slave trade with the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and then abolished slavery in all its colonies with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

In the first two decades of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew in power and expanded their territory under their leader, Shaka. Shaka's warfare led indirectly to the Mfecane ("crushing") that devastated and depopulated the inland plateau in the early 1820s. An offshoot of the Zulu, the Matabele people created a larger empire that included large parts of the highveld under their king Mzilikazi.

During the 1830s, approximately 12,000 Boers (later known as Voortrekkers), departed from the Cape Colony, where they had been subjected to British control. They migrated to the future Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal regions. The Boers founded the Boer Republics: the South African Republic (now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces) and the Orange Free State (Free State).

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior started the Mineral Revolution and increased economic growth and immigration. This intensified the European-South African subjugation of the indigenous people. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans and the indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British.

The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics, which were well suited to local conditions. The British returned with greater numbers, more experience, and new strategy in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) but suffered heavy casualties through attrition; in spite of which they were ultimately successful.

Within the country, anti-British policies among white South Africans focused on independence. During the Dutch and British colonial years, racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation was enacted to control the settlement and movement of native people, including the Native Location Act of 1879 and the system of ''pass laws''. Power was held by the ethnic European colonists.

After four years of negotiating, the South Africa Act 1909 created the Union of South Africa from the Cape and Natal colonies, as well as the republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal, on 31 May 1910, eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The newly created Union of South Africa was a dominion of the British Empire. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks; at that stage natives controlled only 7% of the country. The amount of land reserved for indigenous peoples was later marginally increased.

In the Boer republics, from as early as the Pretoria Convention (chapter XXVI), and subsequent South African governments, the legislature passed legally institutionalised segregation, later known as ''apartheid''. The government established three racial classes: white, coloured (people of Asian or mixed racial ancestry), and black, with rights and restrictions for each.

In 1931 the union was effectively granted independence from the United Kingdom with the passage of the Statute of Westminster. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking "Whites". In 1939 the party split over the entry of the Union into World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom, a move which the National Party followers strongly opposed.

In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It strengthened the racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule, and subsequent South African governments since the Union was formed. The Nationalist Government classified all peoples into three races, developed rights and limitations for each, such as pass laws and residential restrictions. The white minority controlled the vastly larger black majority. The system of segregation became known collectively as apartheid.

While the White minority enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, comparable to First World Western nations, the Black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy.

Republic[link]

On 31 May 1961, following a whites-only referendum, the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state, and the last Governor-General became State President.

Despite opposition both within and outside the country, the government legislated for a continuation of apartheid. Apartheid became increasingly controversial, and some Western nations and institutions began to boycott doing business with South Africa because of its racial policies and oppression of civil rights. International sanctions, divestment of holdings by investors accompanied growing unrest and oppression within South Africa. The government harshly oppressed resistance movements, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheid activists using strikes, marches, protests, and sabotage by bombing and other means. The African National Congress (ANC) was a major resistance movement. In the late 1970s, South Africa began a programme of nuclear weapons development. In the following decade, it produced six deliverable nuclear weapons.

The Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Harry Schwarz in 1974, enshrined the principles of peaceful transition of power and equality for all, the first of such agreements by acknowledged black and white political leaders in South Africa. Ultimately, F. W. de Klerk negotiated with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for a transition of policies and government.

In 1990 the National Party government took the first step towards dismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other political organisations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison after twenty-seven years' serving a sentence for sabotage. A negotiation process followed. The government repealed apartheid legislation. South Africa destroyed its nuclear arsenal and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority. It has been in power ever since. The country rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations.

In post-apartheid South Africa, unemployment has been extremely high as the country has struggled with many changes. While many blacks have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of blacks worsened between 1994 and 2003. Poverty among whites, previously rare, increased. In addition, the current government has struggled to achieve the monetary and fiscal discipline to ensure both redistribution of wealth and economic growth. Since the ANC-led government took power, the United Nations Human Development Index of South Africa has fallen, while it was steadily rising until the mid-1990s. Some may be attributed to the AIDS pandemic, and the failure of the government to take steps to address it in the early years.

In May 2008, riots left over sixty people dead. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions estimates over 100,000 people were driven from their homes. Migrants and refugees seeking asylum were the targets, but a third of the victims were South African citizens. In a 2006 survey, the South African Migration Project concluded that South Africans are more opposed to immigration than anywhere else in the world. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2008 over 200,000 refugees applied for asylum in South Africa, almost four times as many as the year before. These people were mainly from Zimbabwe, though many also come from Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Competition over jobs, business opportunities, public services and housing has led to tension between refugees and host communities. While xenophobia is still a problem, recent violence has not been as widespread as initially feared.

Politics[link]

South Africa is a parliamentary republic, although unlike most such republics the President is both head of state and head of government, and depends for his tenure on the confidence of Parliament. The executive, legislature and judiciary are all subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and the superior courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of Parliament if they are unconstitutional.

The National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, consists of 400 members and is elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation. In the most recent election, held on 22 April 2009, the African National Congress (ANC) won 65.9% of the vote and 264 seats, while the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 16.7% of the vote and 67 seats. The National Council of Provinces, the upper house, consists of ninety members, with each of the nine provincial legislatures electing ten members.

After each parliamentary election, the National Assembly elects one of its members as President; hence the President serves a term of office the same as that of the Assembly, normally five years. No President may serve more than two terms in office. The President appoints a Deputy President and Ministers, who form the Cabinet. The President and the Cabinet may be removed by the National Assembly by a motion of no confidence.

South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital; Pretoria, as the seat of the President and Cabinet, is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein, as the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal, is the judicial capital.

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South African politics have been dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which has been the dominant party with 60–70% of the vote. The main challenger to the rule of the ANC is the Democratic Alliance. The National Party, which ruled from 1948 to 1994, renamed itself in 1997 to the New National Party, and chose to merge with the ANC in 2005. Other major political parties represented in Parliament are the Congress of the People, which split from the ANC and won 7.4% of the vote in 2009, and the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters and took 4.6% of the vote in the 2009 election.

Since 2004, the country has had many thousands of popular protests, some violent, making it, according to one academic, the "most protest-rich country in the world". Many of these protests have been organised from the growing shanty towns that surround South African cities.

In 2008, South Africa placed 5th out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. South Africa scored well in the categories of Rule of Law, Transparency & Corruption and Participation & Human Rights, but was let down by its relatively poor performance in Safety & Security. The Ibrahim Index is a comprehensive measure of African governance, based on a number of different variables which reflect the success with which governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens. In November 2006, South Africa became the first African country to legalize gay marriage.

Law[link]

The primary sources of South African law are Roman-Dutch mercantile law and personal law with English Common law, as imports of Dutch settlements and British colonialism. The first European based law in South Africa was brought by the Dutch East India Company and is called Roman-Dutch law. It was imported before the codification of European law into the Napoleonic Code and is comparable in many ways to Scots law. This was followed in the 19th century by English law, both common and statutory. Starting in 1910 with unification, South Africa had its own parliament which passed laws specific for South Africa, building on those previously passed for the individual member colonies. During the years of apartheid, the country's political scene was dominated by figures like B. J. Vorster and P. W. Botha, as well as opposition figures such as Harry Schwarz, Joe Slovo and Helen Suzman.

The judicial system consists of the magistrates' courts, which hear lesser criminal cases and smaller civil cases; the High Courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction for specific areas; the Supreme Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in all but constitutional matters; and the Constitutional Court, which hears only constitutional matters.

According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for murder and first for assaults and rapes per capita. Nearly 50 murders are committed each day in South Africa. Total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the data set. Middle-class South Africans seek security in gated communities. Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for them to leave. Crime against the farming community has continued to be a major problem.

It is estimated that 500,000 women are raped in South Africa every year with the average woman more likely to be raped than complete secondary school. A 2009 survey found one in four South African men admitted to raping someone and another survey found one in three women out of 4000 surveyed women said they had been raped in the past year. Rapes are also perpetrated by children (some as young as ten). Child and baby rape incidences are some of the highest in the world and a number of high profile cases have outraged the nation.

Foreign relations[link]

As the Union of South Africa, the country was a founding member of the United Nations. The then Prime Minister Jan Smuts wrote the preamble to the United Nations Charter. The country is one of the founding members of the African Union (AU), and has the largest economy of all the members. It is also a founding member of the AU's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). South Africa has played a key role as a mediator in African conflicts over the last decade, such as in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Comoros, and Zimbabwe. After apartheid ended, South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth of Nations. The country is a member of the Group of 77 and chaired the organisation in 2006. South Africa is also a member of the Southern African Development Community, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, Southern African Customs Union, Antarctic Treaty System, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, G20 and G8+5. South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Hu Jintao upgraded bilateral ties between the two countries on 24 August 2010, when they signed the Beijing Agreement, which elevated South Africa's earlier "strategic partnership" with China to the higher level of "comprehensive strategic partnership" in both economic and political affairs, including the strengthening of exchanges between their respective ruling parties and legislatures. In April 2011, South Africa formally joined the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRICS) grouping of countries, identified by President Zuma as the country's largest trading partners, and also the largest trading partners with Africa as a whole. All five BRICS member countries are currently on the UN Security Council; Brazil, India and South Africa as non-permanent members. Zuma asserted that BRICS member countries would also work with each other through the UN, the Group of Twenty (G20) and the India, Brazil South Africa (IBSA) forum.

Military[link]

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was created in 1994, as an all volunteer force composed of the former South African Defence Force, the forces of the African nationalist groups (Umkhonto we Sizwe and Azanian People's Liberation Army), and the former Bantustan defence forces. The SANDF is subdivided into four branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force, the South African Navy, and the South African Medical Service. In recent years, the SANDF has become a major peacekeeping force in Africa, and has been involved in operations in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi, amongst others. It has also served in multi-national UN peacekeeping forces.

South Africa is the only African country to have successfully developed nuclear weapons. It became the first country (followed by Ukraine) with nuclear capability to voluntarily renounce and dismantle its programme and in the process signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons programme in the 1970s According to former state president FW de Klerk, the decision to build a "nuclear deterrent" was taken "as early as 1974 against a backdrop of a Soviet expansionist threat." South Africa may have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979, though De Klerk asserted that South Africa had "never conducted a clandestine nuclear test." Six nuclear devices were completed between 1980 and 1990, but all were destroyed before South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.

Provinces[link]

At the end of apartheid in 1994, the "independent" and "semi-independent" Bantustans were abolished, as were the four original provinces (Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal), and nine new provinces were created. Each province is governed by a unicameral legislature, which is elected every five years by party-list proportional representation. The legislature elects a Premier as head of government, and the Premier appoints an Executive Council as a provincial cabinet. The powers of provincial governments are limited to topics listed in the Constitution; these topics include such fields as health, education, public housing and transport. align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left" align="left"

Province	! Provincial capital	! Largest city	! Area (km²)	! Population (2011 est.)
align="left"	Eastern Cape	Bhisho	Port Elizabeth ||	168,966	6,829,958
align="left"	Free State	Bloemfontein ||	Bloemfontein	129,825	2,759,644
align="left"	Gauteng	Johannesburg ||	Johannesburg	18,178	11,328,203
align="left"	KwaZulu-Natal	Pietermaritzburg ||	Durban	94,361	10,819,130
align="left"	Limpopo	Polokwane ||	Polokwane	125,754	5,554,657
align="left"	Mpumalanga	Nelspruit ||	Nelspruit	76,495	3,657,181
align="left"	North West	Mafikeng ||	Rustenburg	104,882	3,253,390
align="left"	Northern Cape	Kimberley ||	Kimberley	372,889	1,096,731
align="left"	Western Cape	Cape Town ||	Cape Town	129,462	5,287,863

The provinces are in turn divided into 52 districts: 8 metropolitan and 44 district municipalities. The district municipalities are further subdivided into 226 local municipalities. The metropolitan municipalities, which govern the largest urban agglomerations, perform the functions of both district and local municipalities.

Geography[link]

South Africa is located at the southernmost region of Africa, with a long coastline that stretches more than and along two oceans (the South Atlantic and the Indian). At , South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world and is comparable in size to Colombia. Mafadi in the Drakensberg at is the highest peak in South Africa. Excluding the Prince Edward Islands, the country lies between latitudes 22° and 35°S, and longitudes 16° and 33°E.

The interior of South Africa is a vast, flat, and sparsely populated scrubland, the Karoo, which is drier towards the northwest along the Namib desert. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well-watered, which produces a climate similar to the tropics.

To the north of Johannesburg, the altitude drops beyond the escarpment of the Highveld, and turns into the lower lying Bushveld, an area of mixed dry forest and an abundance of wildlife. East of the Highveld, beyond the eastern escarpment, the Lowveld stretches towards the Indian Ocean. It has particularly high temperatures, and is also the location of extended subtropical agriculture.

South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-Antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island () and Prince Edward Island () (not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).

Climate[link]

South Africa has a generally temperate climate, due in part to being surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on three sides, by its location in the climatically milder southern hemisphere and due to the average elevation rising steadily towards the north (towards the equator) and further inland. Due to this varied topography and oceanic influence, a great variety of climatic zones exist. Winters in South Africa occur between June and August.

The climatic zones vary, from the extreme desert of the southern Namib in the farthest northwest to the lush subtropical climate in the east along the Mozambique border and the Indian ocean. From the east, the land quickly rises over a mountainous escarpment towards the interior plateau known as the Highveld. Even though South Africa is classified as semi-arid, there is considerable variation in climate as well as topography.

The extreme southwest has a climate remarkably similar to that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers, hosting the famous Fynbos biome of shrubland and thicket. This area also produces much of the wine in South Africa. This region is also particularly known for its wind, which blows intermittently almost all year. The severity of this wind made passing around the Cape of Good Hope particularly treacherous for sailors, causing many shipwrecks. Further east on the south coast, rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing a green landscape. This area is popularly known as the Garden Route.

The Free State is particularly flat because it lies centrally on the high plateau. North of the Vaal River, the Highveld becomes better watered and does not experience subtropical extremes of heat. Johannesburg, in the centre of the Highveld, is at and receives an annual rainfall of . Winters in this region are cold, although snow is rare.

The high Drakensberg mountains, which form the south-eastern escarpment of the Highveld, offer limited skiing opportunities in winter. The coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, where midwinter temperatures can reach as low as . The deep interior has the hottest temperatures: a temperature of was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.

Flora and fauna[link]

South Africa is ranked sixth out of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries, with more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth, making it particularly rich in plant biodiversity. The most prevalent biome in South Africa is the grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are several species of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the north-east of the country, with denser growth. There are significant numbers of baobab trees in this area, near the northern end of Kruger National Park.

The Fynbos Biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the six floral kingdoms, is located in a small region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the richest regions on earth in terms of floral biodiversity. The majority of the plants are evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Another uniquely South African plant is the protea genus of flowering plants. There are around 130 different species of protea in South Africa. While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain of KwaZulu-Natal, where there are also areas of Southern Africa mangroves in river mouths. There are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of fire, known as montane forests. Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine. South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the nineteenth century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. Black Wattle, Port Jackson, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. The original temperate forest found by the first European settlers was exploited ruthlessly until only small patches remained. Currently, South African hardwood trees like Real Yellowwood ''(Podocarpus latifolius)'', stinkwood ''(Ocotea bullata)'', and South African Black Ironwood ''(Olea laurifolia)'' are under government protection.

Numerous mammals are found in the bushveld including lions, leopards, white rhinos, blue wildebeest, kudus, impalas, hyenas, hippopotamus and giraffes. A significant extent of the bushveld exists in the north-east including Kruger National Park and the Mala Mala Reserve, as well as in the far north in the Waterberg Biosphere. Statistics from South African National Parks show a record 333 rhinos have been killed in 2010.

Climate change is expected to bring considerable warming and drying to much of this already semi-arid region, with greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding and drought. According to computer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute parts of southern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about one degree Celsius along the coast to more than four degrees Celsius in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050.

The Cape Floral Kingdom has been identified as one of the global biodiversity hotspots since it will be hit very hard by climate change and has such a great diversity of life. Drought, increased intensity and frequency of fire and climbing temperatures are expected to push many of these rare species towards extinction.

South Africa houses many endemic species, among them the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit (''Bunolagus monticullaris'') in the Karoo.

Economy[link]

South Africa has a mixed economy with a high rate of poverty and low GDP per capita. Unemployment is high and South Africa is ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient. Unlike most of the world's poor countries, South Africa does not have a thriving informal economy; according to OECD estimates, only 15% of South African jobs are in the shadow economy, compared with around half in Brazil and India and nearly three-quarters in Indonesia. The OECD attributes this difference to South Africa's widespread welfare system. World Bank research shows that South Africa has one of the widest gaps between per capita GNP versus its Human Development Index ranking, with only Botswana showing a larger gap.

After 1994 government policy brought down inflation, stabilised public finances, and some foreign capital was attracted, however growth was still subpar. From 2004 onward economic growth picked up significantly; both employment and capital formation increased.

South Africa is a popular tourist destination, and a substantial amount of revenue comes from tourism. Illegal immigrants are involved in informal trading. Many immigrants to South Africa continue to live in poor conditions, and the immigration policy has become increasingly restrictive since 1994.

Principal international trading partners of South Africa—besides other African countries—include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain.

Labour market[link]

During 1995–2003, the number of formal jobs decreased and informal jobs increased; overall unemployment worsened.

The government's Black Economic Empowerment policies have drawn criticism from the Development Bank of Southern Africa's lead economist for focusing "almost exclusively on promoting individual ownership by black people (which) does little to address broader economic disparities, though the rich may become more diverse." Official affirmative action policies have seen a rise in black economic wealth and an emerging black middle class. Other problems include state ownership and interference, which impose high barriers to entry in many areas. Restrictive labour regulations have contributed to the unemployment malaise.

Along with many African nations, South Africa has been experiencing a "brain drain" in the past 20 years. This is believed to be potentially damaging for the regional economy, and is almost certainly detrimental for the well-being of the majority of people reliant on the healthcare infrastructure, given the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The skills drain in South Africa tends to demonstrate racial contours given the skills distribution legacy of South Africa and has thus resulted in large white South African communities abroad. However, the statistics which purport to show a brain drain are disputed and also do not account for repatriation and expiry of foreign work contracts. According to several surveys there has been a reverse in brain drain following the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and expiration of foreign work contracts. In the first quarter of 2011, confidence levels for graduate professionals were recorded at a level of 84% in a PPS survey.

Agriculture[link]

The South African agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing around 2.6% of GDP for the nation. Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5% can be used for crop production, and only 3% is considered high potential land.

According to FAOSTAT, South Africa is one of world's largest producers of: chicory roots (4th); grapefruit (4th); cereals (5th); green maize and maize (7th); castor oil seed (9th); pears (9th); sisal (10th); fibre crops (10th).

The dairy industry consists of around 4,300 milk producers providing employment for 60,000 farm workers and contributing to the livelihoods of around 40,000 others.

The South African government has set a target of transferring 30% of productive farmland from whites to 'previously disadvantaged' blacks by 2014. Land reform has been criticised both by farmers' groups and by landless workers, the latter alleging that the pace of change has not been fast enough, and the former alleging 'racist' treatment and expressing concerns that a similar situation to Zimbabwe's land reform policy may develop, a fear exacerbated by comments made by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The government has been accused of either putting in too much effort, or not enough effort, to tackle the problem of farm attacks as opposed to other forms of violent crime.

Some predictions show surface water supply could decrease by 60% by the year 2070 in parts of the Western Cape. To reverse the damage caused by land mismanagement, the government has supported a scheme which promotes sustainable development and the use of natural resources. Maize production, which contributes to a 36% majority of the gross value of South Africa's field crops, has also experienced negative effects due to climate change. The estimated value of loss, which takes into consideration scenarios with and without the carbon dioxide fertilisation effect, ranges between tens and hundreds of millions of Rands.

Science and technology[link]

Several important scientific and technological developments have originated in South Africa. The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967. Max Theiler developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack pioneered x-ray Computed tomography, and Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (with the exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prizes. Sydney Brenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology.

Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security company Thawte, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign. Despite government efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in biotechnology, IT and other high technology fields, no other notable groundbreaking companies have been founded in South Africa. It is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to be more reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Eastern economies in manufacturing, nor can the republic rely on its mineral wealth in perpetuity.

South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the €1.5 billion Square Kilometer Array project. South Africa is a finalist, with Australia, to be the host of the SKA.

Demographics[link]

}} South Africa is a nation of about 50 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The last census was held in 2011. Even though the population of South Africa has increased in the past decade, the country had an annual population growth rate of −0.412% in 2012 (CIA est.), where the birth rate is higher than the death rate but there is a net emigration rate. South Africa is home to an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants, including some 3 million Zimbabweans. A series of anti-immigrant riots occurred in South Africa beginning on 11 May 2008.

Statistics South Africa provided five racial categories by which people could classify themselves, the last of which, "unspecified/other" drew negligible responses, and these results were omitted. The 2010 midyear estimated figures for the other categories were Black African at 79.4%, White at 9.2%, Coloured at 8.8%, and Indian or Asian at 2.6%. The first census in South Africa in 1911 showed that whites made up 22% of the population; it declined to 16% in 1980.

By far the major part of the population classified itself as African or black, but it is not culturally or linguistically homogeneous. Major ethnic groups include the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho (South Sotho), Bapedi (North Sotho), Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele, all of which speak Bantu languages.

The colored population is mainly concentrated in the Cape region, and come from a combination of ethnic backgrounds including White, Khoi, San, Griqua, Chinese and Malay.

White South Africans are descendants of Dutch, German, French Huguenots, English and other European and Jewish settlers. Culturally and linguistically, they are divided into the Afrikaners, who speak Afrikaans, and English-speaking groups. The white population has been on the decrease due to a low birth rate and emigration; as a factor in their decision to emigrate, many cite the high crime rate and the affirmative action policies of the government. Since 1994, approximately 440,000 white South Africans have permanently emigrated. Despite high emigration levels, a few immigrants from Europe have settled in the country. By 2005, an estimated 212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000. Some white Zimbabwean emigrated to South Africa. Some of the more nostalgic members of the community are known in popular culture as "Whenwes", because of their nostalgia for their lives in Rhodesia "when we were in Rhodesia".

The Indian population came to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugar plantations in Natal in the late 19th and early 20th century. They came from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, adhered to different religions and spoke different languages. Serious riots in Durban between Indians and Zulus erupted in 1949. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans (approximately 100,000 individuals) and Vietnamese South Africans (approximately 50,000 individuals). In 2008, the Pretoria High Court has ruled that Chinese South Africans who arrived before 1994 are to be reclassified as Coloureds. As a result of this ruling, about 12,000–15,000 ethnically Chinese citizens who arrived before 1994, numbering 3%–5% of the total Chinese population in the country, will be able to benefit from government BEE policies.

South Africa hosts a sizeable refugee and asylum seeker population. According to the ''World Refugee Survey 2008'', published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, this population numbered approximately 144,700 in 2007. Groups of refugees and asylum seekers numbering over 10,000 included people from Zimbabwe (48,400), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (24,800), and Somalia (12,900). These populations mainly lived in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth. Many refugees have now also started to work and live in rural areas in provinces such as Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

Religion[link]

According to the 2001 national census, Christians accounted for 79.7% of the population. This includes Zion Christian (11.1%), Pentecostal (Charismatic) (8.2%), Roman Catholic (7.1%), Methodist (6.8%), Dutch Reformed (6.7%), Anglican (3.8%); members of other Christian churches accounted for another 36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population, Hindus about 1.3%, and Judaism 0.2%. 15.1% had no religious affiliation, 2.3% were other and 1.4% were unspecified.

African Indigenous Churches were the largest of the Christian groups. It was believed that many of these persons who claimed no affiliation with any organised religion adhered to traditional indigenous religions. Many peoples have syncretic religious practices combining Christian and indigenous influences.

South African Muslims constitute mostly of those are described as Coloureds and those who are described as Indians. They have been joined by black or white South African converts as well as others from other parts of Africa. South African Muslims claim that their faith is the fastest-growing religion of conversion in the country, with the number of black Muslims growing sixfold, from 12,000 in 1991 to 74,700 in 2004

The Hindu population was primarily established during British colonial period, but later waves of immigration from India have also contributed to it. Most Hindus are ethnically South Asian but there are many who come from mixed racial stock, and some are converts with the efforts of Hindu missionaries such as ISKCON.

Other minority religions in South Africa are Sikhism, Jainism, and Bahá'í Faith.

Languages[link]

thumb|left|Map showing dominant South African [[Languages of South Africa|languages. ]] South Africa has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. In this regard it is third only to Bolivia and India in number. While all the languages are formally equal, some languages are spoken more than others. According to the 2001 National Census, the three most spoken first home languages are Zulu (23.8%), Xhosa (17.6%), and Afrikaans (13.3%). Despite the fact that English is recognised as the language of commerce and science, it was spoken by only 8.2% of South Africans at home in 2001, an even lower percentage than in 1996 (8.6%).

The country also recognises several unofficial languages, including Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San, and South African Sign Language. These unofficial languages may be used in certain official uses in limited areas where it has been determined that these languages are prevalent. Nevertheless, their populations are not such that they require nationwide recognition.

Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoikhoi people contain regional dialects stretching northwards into Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based on their hunter-gatherer societies. They have been marginalised to a great extent, and many of their languages are in danger of becoming extinct.

Many white South Africans also speak other European languages, such as Portuguese (also spoken by black Angolans and Mozambicans), German, and Greek, while some Asians and Indians in South Africa speak South Asian languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Telugu. French is spoken in South Africa by migrants from Francophone Africa.

Largest cities[link]

Health[link]

The spread of AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) is an alarming problem in South Africa, with up to 31% of pregnant women found to be HIV infected in 2005 and the infection rate among adults estimated at 20%. The link between HIV, a virus spread primarily by sexual contact, and AIDS was long denied by prior president Thabo Mbeki and then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who insisted that the many deaths in the country are due to malnutrition, and hence poverty, and not HIV. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations, the life expectancy in 2009 was 71 years for a white South African and 48 years for a black South African.

In 2007, in response to international pressure, the government made efforts to fight AIDS. In September 2008 Thabo Mbeki was recalled by the ANC and chose to resign and Kgalema Motlanthe was appointed for the interim. One of Motlanthe's first actions was to replace Tshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan who immediately started working to improve the Government's approach to AIDS. After the 2009 General Elections, President Jacob Zuma appointed Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as the new minister and committed his government to increasing funding for and widening the scope of AIDS treatment.

AIDS affects mainly those who are sexually active and is far more prevalent in the black population. Most deaths are people who are also economically active, resulting in many families losing their primary wage earners. This has resulted in many 'AIDS orphans' who in many cases depend on the state for care and financial support. It is estimated that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa. Many elderly people also lose the support from lost younger members of their family. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, South Africa has an estimated 5.6 million people living with HIV - more than any other country in the world.

Society and culture[link]

South African culture is diverse; foods from many cultures are enjoyed by all and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the large variety of South African cuisine. In addition to food, music and dance feature prominently.

South African cuisine is heavily meat-based and has spawned the distinctively South African social gathering known as a ''braai'', or barbecue. South Africa has also developed into a major wine producer, with some of the best vineyards lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl and Barrydale.

The South African black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and Westernised, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoisan languages who are not included in the eleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officially recognised languages. There are small groups of speakers of endangered languages, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.

Members of the middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of black, coloured and Indian people, have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Members of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the markets of the world. Asians, predominantly of Indian origin, preserve their own cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu or Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less frequently, but the majority of Indians being able to understand their mother tongue. The first Indians arrived on the famous Truro ship as indentured labourers in Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields. There is a much smaller Chinese community in South Africa, although its numbers have increased due to immigration from Republic of China (Taiwan).

South Africa has also had a large influence in the Scouting movement, with many Scouting traditions and ceremonies coming from the experiences of Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting) during his time in South Africa as a military officer in the 1890s. The South African Scout Association was one of the first youth organisations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa. This happened on 2 July 1977 at a conference known as ''Quo Vadis''.

In 2006, South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalise same-sex marriage.

Art[link]

The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South African cave. Dating from 75,000 years ago, these small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace. South Africa was one of the cradles of the human species. One of the defining characteristics of our species is the making of art (from Latin 'ars' meaning worked or formed from basic material).

The scattered tribes of Khoisan peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. In the 20th century, traditional tribal forms of art were scattered and re-melded by the divisive policies of apartheid.

New forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner Trekboers and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards also contributed to this eclectic mix, which continues to evolve today.

Literature[link]

South Africa's unique social and political history have generated a strong group of local writers, with themes that span the days of apartheid to the lives of people in the "new South Africa".

Many of the first black South African authors were missionary-educated, and the majority of which thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje's ''Mhudi'', written in 1930.

Notable white South African authors include Nadine Gordimer who was, in Seamus Heaney's words, one of "the guerrillas of the imagination", and who became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July's People, was released in 1981, depicting the collapse of white-minority rule.

J.M. Coetzee was the second South African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 2003. When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider". The press release for the award also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance", while focusing on the moral nature of his work.

Athol Fugard, whose plays have been regularly premiered in fringe theatres in South Africa, London (The Royal Court Theatre) and New York. Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm (1883) was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form.

Alan Paton published the acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country in 1948. He told the tale of a black priest who comes to Johannesburg to find his son, which became an international best-seller. During the 1950s, Drum magazine became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to urban black culture.

Afrikaans-language writers also began to write controversial material. Breyten Breytenbach was jailed for his involvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. Andre Brink was the first Afrikaner writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season about a white South African who discovers the truth about a black friend who dies in police custody.

J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, was born in Bloemfontein in 1892.

Cinema[link]

While many foreign films have been produced about South Africa (usually involving race relations), few local productions are known outside South Africa itself. One exception was the film ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' in 1980, set in the Kalahari. This is about how life in a traditional community of Bushmen is changed when a Coke bottle, thrown out of an aeroplane, suddenly lands from the sky. The late Jamie Uys, who wrote and directed ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'', also had success overseas in the 1970s with his films ''Funny People'' and ''Funny People II'', similar to the TV series ''Candid Camera'' in the US. Leon Schuster's ''You Must Be Joking!'' films are in the same genre, and hugely popular among South Africans.

Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was ''District 9''. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, a native South African, and produced by Peter Jackson, the action/science-fiction film depicts a sub-class of alien refugees forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg in what many saw as a creative allegory for apartheid. The film was a critical and commercial success worldwide, and was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards.

Other notable exceptions are the film ''Tsotsi'', which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006 as well as ''U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha'', which won the Golden Bear at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.

Music[link]

There is great diversity in music from South Africa. Many black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English during apartheid have since begun to sing in traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style called Kwaito. Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while the Soweto String Quartet performs classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles. South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Jonathan Butler, Chris McGregor, and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr and the punk rock band Fokofpolisiekar. Crossover artists such as Verity (internationally recognised for innovation in the music industry) and Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka and Savuka have enjoyed various success underground, publicly, and abroad.

The South African music scene includes Kwaito, a new music genre that had developed in the mid 80s and has since developed to become the most popular social economical form of representation among the populous. Though some may argue that the political aspects of Kwaito has since diminished after Apartheid, and the relative interest in politics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Some argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force that shows activism in its apolitical actions. Today, major corporations like Sony, BMG, and EMI have appeared on the South African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as the general influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country, Kwaito has taken over radio, television, and magazines.

Sports[link]

South Africa's most popular sports are soccer, rugby and cricket. Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf, boxing, tennis and netball. Although soccer commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing and skateboarding are increasingly popular.

Soccer players who have played for major foreign clubs include Steven Pienaar (Tottenham), Lucas Radebe and Philemon Masinga (both formerly of Leeds United), Quinton Fortune (Atlético Madrid and Manchester United), Benni McCarthy (Ajax Amsterdam, F.C. Porto, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United), Aaron Mokoena (Ajax Amsterdam, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth), and Delron Buckley (Borussia Dortmund). Famous boxing personalities include Baby Jake Jacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu, Welcome Ncita, Dingaan Thobela, Gerrie Coetzee and Brian Mitchell. Durban Surfer Jordy Smith won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay competition making him the no 1 ranked surfer in the world. South Africa produced Formula One motor racing's 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter. Famous current cricket players include Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, etc. Most of them also participate in the Indian Premier League.

South Africa has also produced numerous world class rugby players, including Francois Pienaar, Joost van der Westhuizen, Danie Craven, Frik du Preez, Naas Botha and Bryan Habana. South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations, with the national team going on to win the tournament. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship, and it was the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was the first time the tournament was held in Africa. FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event.

In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Penny Heyns won Olympic Gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

In golf, Gary Player is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career Grand Slam, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments include Bobby Locke, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Louis Oosthuizen .

Education[link]

South Africa has a 3 tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by high school and tertiary education in the form of (academic) universities and universities of technology. Learners have twelve years of formal schooling, from grade 1 to 12. Grade R is a pre-primary foundation year. Primary schools span the first seven years of schooling. High School education spans a further five years. The Senior Certificate examination takes place at the end of grade 12 and is necessary for tertiary studies at a South African university.

Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology ("Technikons"), which offer vocational oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer both types of qualification. There are 23 public universities in South Africa: 11 traditional universities, 6 universities of technology and 6 comprehensive universities. Public institutions are usually English medium, although instruction may take place in Afrikaans as well. There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africa – some are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas. Both public and private universities and colleges register with the Department of Higher Education and Training and are accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Rankings of universities and business schools in South Africa are largely based on international university rankings, because there have not as yet been published any specifically South African rankings.

Under apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to discrimination through inadequate funding and a separate syllabus called ''Bantu Education'' which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as labourers. In 2004 South Africa started reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" in order to redressing these imbalances.

Public expenditure on education was at 5.4 % of the 2002–05 GDP.

See also[link]

Outline of South Africa

References[link]

Further reading[link]

''A History of South Africa, Third Edition''. Leonard Thompson. Yale University Press. 1 March 2001. 384 pages. ISBN 0-300-08776-4.

''Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City''. Richard Tomlinson, et al. 1 January 2003. 336 pages. ISBN 0-415-93559-8.

''Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid''. Nigel Worden. 1 July 2000. 194 pages. ISBN 0-631-21661-8.

''South Africa: A Narrative History''. Frank Welsh. Kodansha America. 1 February 1999. 606 pages. ISBN 1-56836-258-7.

''South Africa in Contemporary Times''. Godfrey Mwakikagile. New Africa Press. February 2008. 260 pages. ISBN 978-0-9802587-3-8.

''The Atlas of Changing South Africa''. A. J. Christopher. 1 October 2000. 216 pages. ISBN 0-415-21178-6.

''The Politics of the New South Africa''. Heather Deegan. 28 December 2000. 256 pages. ISBN 0-582-38227-0.

''Twentieth-Century South Africa''. William Beinart Oxford University Press 2001, 414 pages, ISBN 0-19-289318-1

External links[link]

Government of South Africa

Chief of State and Cabinet Members

South Africa from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

SouthAfrica.info

Stunning South Africa – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Key Development Forecasts for South Africa from International Futures

Category:African countries Category:Countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean Category:Countries of the Indian Ocean Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:Former British colonies Category:G20 nations Category:Liberal democracies Category:Member states of the African Union Category:Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Member states of the United Nations Category:Republics Category:States and territories established in 1910

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union	International Cricket Council
first	16th century (modern)
team	11 players per sidesubstitute fielders (only) are permitted in cases of injury or illness
mgender	Single
category	Team, Bat-and-ball
ball	Cricket ball, cricket bat, wicket: stumps, bails
venue	Cricket field
olympic	1900 Summer Olympics only }}

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.

In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from 20 overs of six bowling deliveries per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.

Cricket was first played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed into the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being held. The ICC, the game's governing body, has ten full members. The game is played particularly in Australasia, the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies, Southern Africa and England.

History[link]

Early cricket was at some time or another described as "a club striking a ball (like) the ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball, trap-ball, stob-ball". Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England. Written evidence exists of a game known as ''creag'' being played by Prince Edward, the son of Edward I (Longshanks), at Newenden, Kent in 1301 and there has been speculation, but no evidence, that this was a form of cricket.

A number of other words have been suggested as sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598, it is called ''creckett''. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch ''krick''(''-e''), meaning a stick (crook); or the Old English ''cricc'' or ''cryce'' meaning a crutch or staff. In Old French, the word ''criquet'' seems to have meant a kind of club or stick. In Samuel Johnson's ''Dictionary'', he derived cricket from "''cryce'', Saxon, a stick". Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word ''krickstoel'', meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket. According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, ''met de (krik ket)sen'' (i.e., "with the stick chase"). Dr Gillmeister believes that not only the name but the sport itself is of Flemish origin.

The earliest definite reference to cricket being played in England (and hence anywhere) is in evidence given at a 1598 court case which mentions that "creckett" was played on common land in Guildford, Surrey, around 1550. The court in Guildford heard on Monday, 17 January 1597 (Julian date, equating to the year 1598 in the Gregorian calendar) from a 59 year-old coroner, John Derrick, who gave witness that when he was a scholar at the "Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier, "hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play [on the common land] at creckett and other plaies." It is believed that it was originally a children's game but references around 1610 indicate that adults had started playing it and the earliest reference to inter-parish or village cricket occurs soon afterwards. In 1624, a player called Jasper Vinall was killed when he was struck on the head during a match between two parish teams in Sussex.

During the 17th century, numerous references indicate the growth of cricket in the south-east of England. By the end of the century, it had become an organised activity being played for high stakes and it is believed that the first professionals appeared in the years following the Restoration in 1660. A newspaper report survives of "a great cricket match" with eleven players a side that was played for high stakes in Sussex in 1697 and this is the earliest known reference to a cricket match of such importance.

The game underwent major development in the 18th century and became the national sport of England. Betting played a major part in that development with rich patrons forming their own "select XIs". Cricket was prominent in London as early as 1707 and large crowds flocked to matches on the Artillery Ground in Finsbury. The single wicket form of the sport attracted huge crowds and wagers to match. Bowling evolved around 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball instead of rolling or skimming it towards the batsman. This caused a revolution in bat design because, to deal with the bouncing ball, it was necessary to introduce the modern straight bat in place of the old "hockey stick" shape. The Hambledon Club was founded in the 1760s and, for the next 20 years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's Old Ground in 1787, Hambledon was both the game's greatest club and its focal point. MCC quickly became the sport's premier club and the custodian of the Laws of Cricket. New Laws introduced in the latter part of the 18th century included the three stump wicket and leg before wicket (lbw).

The 19th century saw underarm bowling replaced by first roundarm and then overarm bowling. Both developments were controversial. Organisation of the game at county level led to the creation of the county clubs, starting with Sussex CCC in 1839, which ultimately formed the official County Championship in 1890. Meanwhile, the British Empire had been instrumental in spreading the game overseas and by the middle of the 19th century it had become well established in India, North America, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In 1844, the first international cricket match took place between the United States and Canada (although neither has ever been ranked as a Test-playing nation).

In 1859, a team of England players went on the first overseas tour (to North America). The first Australian team to tour overseas was a team of Aboriginal stockmen who travelled to England in 1868 to play matches against county teams. In 1862, an English team made the first tour of Australia and in 1876–77, an England team took part in the first-ever Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Australia.

W.G. Grace started his long career in 1865; his career is often said to have revolutionised the sport. The rivalry between England and Australia gave birth to The Ashes in 1882 and this has remained Test cricket's most famous contest . Test cricket began to expand in 1888–89 when South Africa played England. The last two decades before the First World War have been called the "Golden Age of cricket". It is a nostalgic name prompted by the collective sense of loss resulting from the war, but the period did produce some great players and memorable matches, especially as organised competition at county and Test level developed.

The inter-war years were dominated by one player: Australia's Don Bradman, statistically the greatest batsman of all time. It was the determination of the England team to overcome his skill that brought about the infamous Bodyline series in 1932–33, particularly from the accurate short-pitched bowling of Harold Larwood. Test cricket continued to expand during the 20th century with the addition of the West Indies, India, and New Zealand before the Second World War and then Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh in the post-war period. However, South Africa was banned from international cricket from 1970 to 1992 because of its government's apartheid policy.

Cricket entered a new era in 1963 when English counties introduced the limited overs variant. As it was sure to produce a result, limited overs cricket was lucrative and the number of matches increased. The first Limited Overs International was played in 1971. The governing International Cricket Council (ICC) saw its potential and staged the first limited overs Cricket World Cup in 1975. In the 21st century, a new limited overs form, Twenty20, has made an immediate impact.

Rules and game-play[link]

Summary[link]

A cricket match is played between two teams of eleven players each on a grassy field, typically in diameter. The Laws of Cricket do not specify the size or shape of the field but it is often oval.

A cricket match is divided into periods called ''innings''. During an innings (''innings'' ends with 's' in both singular and plural form), one team ''fields'' and the other ''bats''. The two teams switch between fielding and batting after each innings. All eleven members of the fielding team take the field, but only two members of the batting team (two batsmen) are on the field at any given time.

The key action takes place in the pitch, a rectangular strip in the centre of the field. The two batsmen face each other at opposite ends of the pitch, each behind a line on the pitch known as a ''crease''. The fielding team's eleven members stand outside the pitch, spread out across the field.

Behind each batsman is a target called a ''wicket''. One designated member of the fielding team, called the ''bowler'', is given a ball, and attempts to send (''bowl'') the ball from one end of the pitch to the wicket behind the batsman on the other side of the pitch. The batsman tries to prevent the ball from hitting the wicket by striking the ball with a bat. If the bowler succeeds in hitting the wicket, or if the ball, after being struck by the batsman, is caught by the fielding team before it touches the ground, the batsman is ''dismissed''. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, to be replaced by another batsman from the batting team.

If the batsman is successful in striking the ball and the ball is not caught before it hits the ground, the two batsmen may then try to score points (''runs'') for their team by running across the pitch, grounding their bats behind each other's crease. Each crossing and grounding by both batsmen is worth one run. The batsmen may attempt multiple runs or elect not to run at all. By attempting runs, the batsmen risk dismissal, which can happen if the fielding team retrieves the ball and hits a wicket with the ball before either batsman reaches the opposite crease.

If the batsman hits the bowled ball over the field boundary without the ball touching the field, the batting team scores six runs and may not attempt more. If the ball touches the ground and then reaches the boundary, the batting team scores four runs and may not attempt more. When the batsmen have finished attempting their runs, the ball is returned to the bowler to be bowled again. The bowler continues to bowl toward the same wicket, regardless of any switch of the batsmen's positions.

After a bowler has bowled six times (an ''over''), another member of the fielding team is designated as the new bowler. The new bowler bowls to the opposite wicket, and play continues. Fielding team members may bowl multiple times during an innings, but may not bowl two overs in succession.

The innings is complete when 10 of the 11 members of the batting team have been dismissed, one always remaining "not out", or when a set number of overs has been played. The number of innings and the number of overs per innings vary depending on the match.

Objectives[link]

The objective of each team is to score more runs than the other team. In Test cricket, it is necessary to score the most runs and dismiss the opposition twice in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn.

Pitch, wickets and creases[link]

At either end of the pitch, apart, are placed the wickets. These serve as a target for the bowling (''aka'' fielding) side and are defended by the batting side which seeks to accumulate runs. The pitch is or one chain in length between the wickets and is wide. It is a flat surface and has very short grass that tends to be worn away as the game progresses. The "condition" of the pitch has a significant bearing on the match and team tactics are always determined with the state of the pitch, both current and anticipated, as a deciding factor.

Each wicket consists of three wooden stumps placed in a straight line and surmounted by two wooden crosspieces called bails; the total height of the wicket including bails is and the combined width of the three stumps is . Four lines, known as creases, are painted onto the pitch around the wicket areas to define the batsman's "safe territory" and to determine the limit of the bowler's approach. These are called the "popping" (or batting) crease, the bowling crease and two "return" creases.

The stumps are placed in line on the bowling creases and so these must be apart. A bowling crease is long with the middle stump placed dead centre. The popping crease has the same length, is parallel to the bowling crease and is in front of the wicket. The return creases are perpendicular to the other two; they are adjoined to the ends of the popping crease and are drawn through the ends of the bowling crease to a length of at least .

When bowling the ball, the bowler's back foot in his "delivery stride" must land within the two return creases while his front foot must land on or behind the popping crease. If the bowler breaks this rule, the umpire calls "No ball".

The importance of the popping crease to the batsman is that it marks the limit of his safe territory for he can be stumped or run out (see Dismissals below) if the wicket is broken while he is "out of his ground".

Bat and ball[link]

The essence of the sport is that a bowler delivers the ball from his end of the pitch towards the batsman who, armed with a bat is "on strike" at the other end.

The bat is made of wood (usually White Willow) and has the shape of a blade topped by a cylindrical handle. The blade must not be more than wide and the total length of the bat not more than .

The ball is a hard leather-seamed spheroid with a circumference of . The hardness of the ball, which can be delivered at speeds of more than , is a matter for concern and batsmen wear protective clothing including pads (designed to protect the knees and shins), batting gloves for the hands, a helmet for the head and a box inside the trousers (to protect the crotch area). Some batsmen wear additional padding inside their shirts and trousers such as thigh pads, arm pads, rib protectors and shoulder pads.

Umpires and scorers[link]

The game on the field is regulated by two umpires, one of whom stands behind the wicket at the bowler's end, the other in a position called "square leg", a position 15–20 metres to the side of the "on strike" batsman. When the bowler delivers the ball, the umpire at the wicket is between the bowler and the non-striker. The umpires confer if there is doubt about playing conditions and can postpone the match by taking the players off the field if necessary, for example rain or deterioration of the light. Off the field and in televised matches, there is often a third umpire who can make decisions on certain incidents with the aid of video evidence. The third umpire is mandatory under the playing conditions for Test matches and limited overs internationals played between two ICC full members. These matches also have a match referee whose job is to ensure that play is within the Laws of cricket and the spirit of the game.

Off the field, the match details including runs and dismissals are recorded by two official scorers, one representing each team. The scorers are directed by the hand signals of an umpire. For example, the umpire raises a forefinger to signal that the batsman is out (has been dismissed); he raises both arms above his head if the batsman has hit the ball for six runs. The scorers are required by the Laws of cricket to record all runs scored, wickets taken and overs bowled. In practice, they accumulate much additional data such as bowling analyses and run rates.

Innings[link]

The innings (ending with 's' in both singular and plural form) is the term used for the collective performance of the batting side. In theory, all eleven members of the batting side take a turn to bat but, for various reasons, an innings can end before they all do so.

Depending on the type of match being played, each team has one or two innings apiece. The term "innings" is also sometimes used to describe an individual batsman's contribution ("he played a fine innings").

The main aim of the bowler, supported by his fielders, is to dismiss the batsman. A batsman when dismissed is said to be "out" and that means he must leave the field of play and be replaced by the next batsman on his team. When ten batsmen have been dismissed (i.e., are out), then the whole team is dismissed and the innings is over. The last batsman, the one who has not been dismissed, is not allowed to continue alone as there must always be two batsmen "in". This batsman is termed "not out".

An innings can end early for three reasons: because the batting side's captain has chosen to "declare" the innings closed (which is a tactical decision), or because the batting side has achieved its target and won the game, or because the game has ended prematurely due to bad weather or running out of time. In each of these cases the team's innings ends with two "not out" batsmen, unless the innings is declared closed at the fall of a wicket and the next batsman has not joined in the play.

In limited overs cricket, there might be two batsmen still "not out" when the last of the allotted overs has been bowled.

Overs[link]

The bowler bowls the ball in sets of six deliveries (or "balls") and each set of six balls is called an over. This name came about because the umpire calls "Over!" when six balls have been bowled. At this point, another bowler is deployed at the other end, and the fielding side changes ends while the batsmen do not. A bowler cannot bowl two successive overs, although a bowler can bowl unchanged at the same end for several overs. The batsmen do not change ends and so the one who was non-striker is now the striker and vice-versa. The umpires also change positions so that the one who was at square leg now stands behind the wicket at the non-striker's end and ''vice-versa''.

Team structure[link]

A team consists of eleven players. Depending on his or her primary skills, a player may be classified as a specialist batsman or bowler. A well-balanced team usually has five or six specialist batsmen and four or five specialist bowlers. Teams nearly always include a specialist wicket-keeper because of the importance of this fielding position. Each team is headed by a captain who is responsible for making tactical decisions such as determining the batting order, the placement of fielders and the rotation of bowlers.

A player who excels in both batting and bowling is known as an all-rounder. One who excels as a batsman and wicket-keeper is known as a "wicket-keeper/batsman", sometimes regarded as a type of all-rounder. True all-rounders are rare as most players focus on either batting or bowling skills.

Bowling[link]

right|thumb|Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, the highest wicket taker in both [[Test Cricket|Test and ODI forms of cricket bowls to Adam Gilchrist.]]The bowler reaches his delivery stride by means of a "run-up", although some bowlers with a very slow delivery take no more than a couple of steps before bowling. A fast bowler needs momentum and takes quite a long run-up, running very fast as he does so.

The fastest bowlers can deliver the ball at a speed of over and they sometimes rely on sheer speed to try and defeat the batsman, who is forced to react very quickly. Other fast bowlers rely on a mixture of speed and guile. Some fast bowlers make use of the seam of the ball so that it "curves" or "swings" in flight. This type of delivery can deceive a batsman into mistiming his shot so that the ball touches the edge of the bat and can then be "caught behind" by the wicketkeeper or a slip fielder.

At the other end of the bowling scale is the "spinner" who bowls at a relatively slow pace and relies entirely on guile to deceive the batsman. A spinner will often "buy his wicket" by "tossing one up" (in a slower, higher parabolic path) to lure the batsman into making a poor shot. The batsman has to be very wary of such deliveries as they are often "flighted" or spun so that the ball will not behave quite as he expects and he could be "trapped" into getting himself out.

In between the pacemen and the spinners are the "medium pacers" who rely on persistent accuracy to try and contain the rate of scoring and wear down the batsman's concentration.

All bowlers are classified according to their looks or style. The classifications, as with much cricket terminology, can be very confusing. Hence, a bowler could be classified as LF, meaning he is a left arm fast bowler; or as LBG, meaning he is a right arm spin bowler who bowls deliveries that are called a "leg break" and a "Googly".

During the bowling action the elbow may be held at any angle and may bend further, but may not straighten out. If the elbow straightens illegally then the square-leg umpire may call no-ball: this is known as "throwing" or "chucking", and can be difficult to detect. The current laws allow a bowler to straighten his arm 15 degrees or less.

Fielding[link]

All eleven players on the fielding side take the field together. One of them is the wicket-keeper ''aka'' "keeper" who operates behind the wicket being defended by the batsman on strike. Wicket-keeping is normally a specialist occupation and his primary job is to gather deliveries that the batsman does not hit, so that the batsmen cannot run byes. He wears special gloves (he is the only fielder allowed to do so), a box over the groin, and pads to cover his lower legs. Owing to his position directly behind the striker, the wicket-keeper has a good chance of getting a batsman out caught off a fine edge from the bat. He is the only player who can get a batsman out stumped.

Apart from the one currently bowling, the other nine fielders are tactically deployed by the team captain in chosen positions around the field. These positions are not fixed but they are known by specific and sometimes colourful names such as "slip", "third man", "silly mid on" and "long leg". There are always many unprotected areas.

The captain is the most important member of the fielding side as he determines all the tactics including who should bowl (and how); and he is responsible for "setting the field", though usually in consultation with the bowler.

In all forms of cricket, if a fielder gets injured or becomes ill during a match, a substitute is allowed to field instead of him. The substitute cannot bowl, act as a captain or keep wicket. The substitute leaves the field when the injured player is fit to return.

Batting[link]

At any one time, there are two batsmen in the playing area. One takes station at the striker's end to defend the wicket as above and to score runs if possible. His partner, the non-striker, is at the end where the bowler is operating.

Batsmen come in to bat in a batting order, decided by the team captain. The first two batsmen – the "openers" – usually face the hostile bowling from fresh fast bowlers with a new ball. The top batting positions are usually given to the most competent batsmen in the team, and the non-batsmen typically bat last. The pre-announced batting order is not mandatory and when a wicket falls any player who has not yet batted may be sent in next.

If a batsman "retires" (usually due to injury) and cannot return, he is actually "not out" and his retirement does not count as a dismissal, though in effect he has been dismissed because his innings is over. Substitute batsmen are not allowed.

A skilled batsman can use a wide array of "shots" or "strokes" in both defensive and attacking mode. The idea is to hit the ball to best effect with the flat surface of the bat's blade. If the ball touches the side of the bat it is called an "edge". Batsmen do not always seek to hit the ball as hard as possible, and a good player can score runs just by making a deft stroke with a turn of the wrists or by simply "blocking" the ball but directing it away from fielders so that he has time to take a run.

There is a wide variety of shots played in cricket. The batsman's repertoire includes strokes named according to the style of swing and the direction aimed: e.g., "cut", "drive", "hook", "pull".

Note that a batsman does not have to play a shot and can "leave" the ball to go through to the wicketkeeper, providing he thinks it will not hit his wicket. Equally, he does not have to attempt a run when he hits the ball with his bat. He can deliberately use his leg to block the ball and thereby "pad it away" but this is risky because of the leg before wicket rule.

In the event of an injured batsman being fit to bat but not to run, the umpires and the fielding captain may allow another member of the batting side to be a runner. The runner's only task is to run between the wickets instead of the injured batsman. The runner is required to wear and carry exactly the same equipment as the incapacitated batsman. It is possible for both batsmen to have runners.

Runs[link]

The primary concern of the batsman on strike (i.e., the "striker") is to prevent the ball hitting the wicket and secondarily to score runs by hitting the ball with his bat so that he and his partner have time to run from one end of the pitch to the other before the fielding side can return the ball. To register a run, both runners must touch the ground behind the crease with either their bats or their bodies (the batsmen carry their bats as they run). Each completed run increments the score.

More than one run can be scored from a single hit; but, while hits worth one to three runs are common, the size of the field is such that it is usually difficult to run four or more. To compensate for this, hits that reach the boundary of the field are automatically awarded four runs if the ball touches the ground ''en route'' to the boundary or six runs if the ball clears the boundary on the full. The batsmen do not need to run if the ball reaches or crosses the boundary.

Hits for five are unusual and generally rely on the help of "overthrows" by a fielder returning the ball. If an odd number of runs is scored by the striker, the two batsmen have changed ends, and the one who was non-striker is now the striker. Only the striker can score individual runs, but all runs are added to the team's total.

The decision to attempt a run is ideally made by the batsman who has the better view of the ball's progress, and this is communicated by calling: "yes", "no" and "wait" are often heard.

Running is a calculated risk because if a fielder breaks the wicket with the ball while the nearest batsman is out of his ground (i.e., he does not have part of his body or bat in contact with the ground behind the popping crease), the batsman is run out.

A team's score is reported in terms of the number of runs scored and the number of batsmen that have been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen are out and the team has scored 224 runs, they are said to have scored 224 for the loss of 5 wickets (commonly shortened to "224 for five" and written 224/5 or, in Australia, "five for 224" and 5/224).

Extras[link]

Additional runs can be gained by the batting team as extras (called "sundries" in Australia) due to errors made by the fielding side. This is achieved in four ways: #No ball: a penalty of one extra that is conceded by the bowler if he breaks the rules of bowling either by (a) using an inappropriate arm action; (b) overstepping the popping crease; (c) having a foot outside the return crease. In addition, the bowler has to re-bowl the ball. In limited overs matches, a no ball is called if the bowling team's field setting fails to comply with the restrictions. In shorter formats of the game (20–20, ODI) the free hit rule has been introduced. The ball following a front foot no-ball will be a free-hit for the batsman, whereby he is safe from losing his wicket except for being run-out. #Wide: a penalty of one extra that is conceded by the bowler if he bowls so that the ball is out of the batsman's reach; as with a no ball, a wide must be re-bowled. #Bye: extra(s) awarded if the batsman misses the ball and it goes past the wicketkeeper to give the batsmen time to run in the conventional way (note that one mark of a good wicketkeeper is one who restricts the tally of byes to a minimum). #Leg bye: extra(s) awarded if the ball hits the batsman's body, but not his bat, while attempting a legitimate shot, and it goes away from the fielders to give the batsmen time to run in the conventional way.

When the bowler has bowled a no ball or a wide, his team incurs an additional penalty because that ball (i.e., delivery) has to be bowled again and hence the batting side has the opportunity to score more runs from this extra ball. The batsmen have to run (i.e., unless the ball goes to the boundary for four) to claim byes and leg byes but these only count towards the team total, not to the striker's individual total for which runs must be scored off the bat.

Dismissals (outs)[link]

There are ten ways in which a batsman can be dismissed; five relatively common and five extremely rare. The common forms of dismissal are "bowled", "caught", "leg before wicket" (lbw), "run out", and "stumped". Less common methods are "hit wicket", "hit the ball twice", "obstructed the field", "handled the ball" and "timed out" - these are almost unknown in the professional game.

Before the umpire will award a dismissal and declare the batsman to be out, a member of the fielding side (generally the bowler) must "appeal". This is invariably done by asking (or shouting) "how's that?" - normally reduced to ''howzat?'' If the umpire agrees with the appeal, he will raise a forefinger and say "Out!". Otherwise he will shake his head and say "Not out". Appeals are particularly loud when the circumstances of the claimed dismissal are unclear, as is always the case with lbw and often with run outs and stumpings.

#Bowled: the bowler has hit the wicket with the delivery and the wicket has "broken" with at least one bail being dislodged (note that if the ball hits the wicket without dislodging a bail it is not out). #Caught: the batsman has hit the ball with his bat, or with his hand which was holding the bat, and the ball has been caught before it has touched the ground by a member of the fielding side. #Leg before wicket (lbw): the ball has hit the batsman's body (including his clothing, pads etc. but not the bat, or a hand holding the bat) when it would have gone on to hit the stumps. This rule exists mainly to prevent the batsman from guarding his wicket with his legs instead of the bat. To be given out lbw, the ball must not bounce outside leg stump or, if the batsman made a genuine attempt to play the ball, outside off stump. #Run out: a member of the fielding side has broken or "put down" the wicket with the ball while the nearest batsman was out of his ground; this usually occurs by means of an accurate throw to the wicket while the batsmen are attempting a run, although a batsman can be given out Run out even when he is not attempting a run; he merely needs to be out of his ground. #Stumped is similar except that it is done by the wicketkeeper after the batsman has missed the bowled ball and has stepped out of his ground, and is not attempting a run. #Hit wicket: a batsman is out hit wicket if he dislodges one or both bails with his bat, person, clothing or equipment in the act of receiving a ball, or in setting off for a run having just received a ball. #Hit the ball twice is very unusual and was introduced as a safety measure to counter dangerous play and protect the fielders. The batsman may legally play the ball a second time only to stop the ball hitting the wicket after he has already played it. #Obstructing the field: another unusual dismissal which tends to involve a batsman deliberately getting in the way of a fielder. #Handled the ball: a batsman must not ''deliberately'' touch the ball with his hand, for example to protect his wicket. Note that the batsman's hand or glove counts as part of the bat while the hand is holding the bat, so batsmen are frequently caught off their gloves (i.e. the ball hits, and is deflected by, the glove and can then be caught). #Timed out usually means that the next batsman did not arrive at the wicket within three minutes of the previous one being dismissed.

In the vast majority of cases, it is the striker who is out when a dismissal occurs. If the non-striker is dismissed it is usually by being run out, but he could also be dismissed for obstructing the field, handling the ball or being timed out.

A batsman may leave the field without being dismissed. If injured or taken ill the batsman may temporarily retire, and be replaced by the next batsman. This is recorded as ''retired hurt'' or ''retired ill''. The retiring batsman is not out, and may resume the innings later. An unimpaired batsman may retire, and this is treated as being dismissed retired out; no player is credited with the dismissal. Batsmen cannot be out ''bowled'', ''caught'', ''leg before wicket'', ''stumped'' or ''hit wicket'' off a ''no ball''. They cannot be out ''bowled'', ''caught'', ''leg before wicket'', or ''hit the ball twice'' off a ''wide''. Some of these modes of dismissal can occur without the bowler bowling a delivery. The batsman who is not on strike may be run out by the bowler if he leaves his crease before the bowler bowls, and a batsman can be out ''obstructing the field'' or ''retired out'' at any time. ''Timed out'' is, by its nature, a dismissal without a delivery. With all other modes of dismissal, only one batsman can be dismissed per ball bowled.

Innings closed[link]

An innings is closed when: # Ten of the eleven batsmen are out (have been dismissed); in this case, the team is said to be "all out" # The team has only one batsman left who can bat, one or more of the remaining players being unavailable owing to injury, illness or absence; again, the team is said to be "all out" # The team batting last reaches the score required to win the match # The predetermined number of overs has been bowled (in a one-day match only, commonly 50 overs; or 20 in Twenty20) # A captain declares his team's innings closed while at least two of his batsmen are not out (this does not apply in one-day limited over matches)

Results[link]

If the team that bats last is all out having scored fewer runs than their opponents, the team is said to have "lost by ''n'' runs" (where ''n'' is the difference between the number of runs scored by the teams). If the team that bats last scores enough runs to win, it is said to have "won by ''n'' wickets", where ''n'' is the number of wickets left to fall. For instance a team that passes its opponents' score having only lost six wickets would have won "by four wickets".

In a two-innings-a-side match, one team's combined first and second innings total may be less than the other side's first innings total. The team with the greater score is then said to have ''won by an innings and ''n'' runs'', and does not need to bat again: ''n'' is the difference between the two teams' aggregate scores.

If the team batting last is all out, and both sides have scored the same number of runs, then the match is a tie; this result is quite rare in matches of two innings a side. In the traditional form of the game, if the time allotted for the match expires before either side can win, then the game is declared a draw.

If the match has only a single innings per side, then a maximum number of deliveries for each innings is often imposed. Such a match is called a "limited overs" or "one-day" match, and the side scoring more runs wins regardless of the number of wickets lost, so that a draw cannot occur. If this kind of match is temporarily interrupted by bad weather, then a complex mathematical formula, known as the Duckworth-Lewis method after its developers, is often used to recalculate a new target score. A one-day match can also be declared a "no-result" if fewer than a previously agreed number of overs have been bowled by either team, in circumstances that make normal resumption of play impossible; for example, wet weather.

Distinctive elements[link]

Individual focus[link]

For a team sport, cricket places individual players under unusual scrutiny and pressure. Bowler, Batsman, and fielder all act essentially independent of each other. While team managements can signal bowler or batsman to pursue certain tactics, the execution of the play itself is a series of solitary acts. Cricket is more similar to baseball than many other team sports in this regard: while the individual focus in cricket is slightly mitigated by the importance of the batting partnership and the practicalities of running, it is enhanced by the fact that a batsman may occupy the wicket for a long time.

Spirit of the Game[link]

Cricket is a unique game where in addition to the laws, the players have to abide by the "Spirit of the Game". The standard of sportsmanship has historically been considered so high that the phrase "it's just not cricket" was coined in the 19th Century to describe unfair or underhanded behaviour in any walk of life. In the last few decades though, cricket has become increasingly fast-paced and competitive, increasing the use of appealing and sledging, although players are still expected to abide by the umpires' rulings without argument, and for the most part they do. Beginning in 2001, the MCC has held an annual lecture named after Colin Cowdrey on the spirit of the game. Even in the modern game fielders are known to signal to the umpire that a boundary was hit, despite what could have been considered a spectacular save (though they might be found out by the TV replays anyway). In addition to this, some batsmen have been known to "walk" when they think they are out even if the umpire does not declare them out. This is a high level of sportsmanship, as a batsman can easily take advantage of incorrect umpiring decisions.

Influence of weather[link]

Cricket is a sport played predominantly in the drier periods of the year. But, even so, the weather is a major factor in all cricket matches.

A scheduled game of cricket cannot be played in wet weather. Dampness affects the bounce of the ball on the wicket and is a risk to all players involved in the game. Many grounds have facilities to cover the cricket pitch (or the wicket). Covers can be in the form of sheets being laid over the wicket to elevated covers on wheels (using the same concept as an umbrella) to even hover covers which form an airtight seal around the wicket. However, most grounds do not have the facilities to cover the outfield. This means that in the event of heavy bouts of bad weather, games may be cancelled, abandoned or suspended due to an unsafe outfield.

Another factor in cricket is the amount of light available. At grounds without floodlights (or in game formats which disallow the use of floodlights), umpires can stop play in the event of bad light as it becomes too difficult for the batsmen to be able to see the ball coming at them, (and in extreme cases, members of the fielding team).

On the other hand, in instances of good light, batsmen can utilize sight-screens which enable batsmen to have a white background against which they can pick out the red ball (or black background for white ball) with greater ease.

The umpires always have the final decision on weather related issues.

Uniqueness of each field[link]

Unlike those of most sports, cricket playing fields can vary significantly in size and shape. While the dimensions of the pitch and infield are specifically regulated, the Laws of Cricket do not specify the size or shape of the field. and returned in 2011.

Welsh players are eligible to play for England, which is in effect an England and Wales team. The West Indies team comprises players from numerous states in the Caribbean, notably Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands.

Test matches between two teams are usually played in a group of matches called a "series". Matches last up to five days and a series normally consists of three to five matches. Test matches that are not finished within the allotted time are drawn. In the case of Test and first-class cricket: the possibility of a draw often encourages a team that is batting last and well behind to bat defensively, giving up any faint chance at a win to avoid a loss.

Since 1882, most Test series between England and Australia have been played for a trophy known as The Ashes. Some other bilateral series have individual trophies too: for example, the Wisden Trophy is contested by England and West Indies; the Frank Worrell Trophy by Australia and West Indies and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia.

Limited overs[link]

Standard limited overs cricket was introduced in England in the 1963 season in the form of a knockout cup contested by the first-class county clubs. In 1969, a national league competition was established. The concept was gradually introduced to the other major cricket countries and the first limited overs international was played in 1971. In 1975, the first Cricket World Cup took place in England. Limited overs cricket has seen various innovations including the use of multi-coloured kit and floodlit matches using a white ball.

A "one day match", named so because each match is scheduled for completion in a single day, is the common form of limited overs cricket played on an international level. In practice, matches sometimes continue on a second day if they have been interrupted or postponed by bad weather. The main objective of a limited overs match is to produce a definite result and so a conventional draw is not possible, but matches can be undecided if the scores are tied or if bad weather prevents a result. Each team plays one innings only and faces a limited number of overs, usually a maximum of 50. The Cricket World Cup is held in one day format and the last World Cup in 2011 was won by the co-hosts, India. The next World Cup will hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2015.

Twenty20 is a new variant of limited overs itself with the purpose being to complete the match within about three hours, usually in an evening session. The original idea, when the concept was introduced in England in 2003, was to provide workers with an evening entertainment. It was commercially successful and has been adopted internationally. The inaugural Twenty20 World Championship was held in 2007 and won by India. 2009's Twenty20 World Championship was staged in England and won by Pakistan. The next Twenty20 World Championship will be held in the West Indies. After the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 many domestic Twenty20 leagues were born. First of them was Indian Cricket League which is a rebel league since it is unauthorized by BCCI and led to form an official league called the Indian Premier League. Both these leagues are cash rich and attracted players and audience around the globe. Recently Twenty20 Champions League was formed as a tournament for domestic clubs of various countries.

National championships[link]

First-class cricket includes Test cricket but the term is generally used to refer to the highest level of domestic cricket in those countries with full ICC membership, although there are exceptions to this. First-class cricket in England is played for the most part by the 18 county clubs which contest the County Championship. The concept of a champion county has existed since the 18th century but the official competition was not established until 1890. The most successful club has been Yorkshire County Cricket Club with 30 official titles.

Australia established its national first-class championship in 1892–93 when the Sheffield Shield was introduced. In Australia, the first-class teams represent the various states. New South Wales has won the maximum number of titles with 45 to 2008.

National championship trophies to be established elsewhere included the Ranji Trophy (India), Plunket Shield (New Zealand), Currie Cup (South Africa) and Shell Shield (West Indies). Some of these competitions have been updated and renamed in recent years.

Domestic limited overs competitions began with England's Gillette Cup knockout in 1963. Countries usually stage seasonal limited overs competitions in both knockout and league format. In recent years, national Twenty20 competitions have been introduced, usually in knockout form though some incorporate mini-leagues.

Other types of matches[link]

There are numerous variations of the sport played throughout the world that include indoor cricket, French cricket, beach cricket, Kwik cricket and all sorts of card games and board games that have been inspired by cricket. In these variants, the rules are often changed to make the game playable with limited resources or to render it more convenient and enjoyable for the participants.

Indoor cricket is played in a netted, indoor arena, and is quite formal but many of the outdoor variants are very informal.

Families and teenagers play backyard cricket in suburban yards or driveways, and the cities of India and Pakistan play host to countless games of "Gully Cricket" or "tapeball" in their long narrow streets. Sometimes the rules are improvised: e.g. it may be agreed that fielders can catch the ball with one hand after one bounce and claim a wicket; or if only a few people are available then everyone may field while the players take it in turns to bat and bowl. Tennis balls and homemade bats are often used, and a variety of objects may serve as wickets: for example, the batter's legs as in French cricket, which did not in fact originate in France, and is usually played by small children.

In Kwik cricket, the bowler does not have to wait for the batsman to be ready before a delivery, leading to a faster, more exhausting game designed to appeal to children, which is often used PE lessons at English schools. Another modification to increase the pace of the game is the "Tip and Run", "Tipity" Run, "Tipsy Run" or "Tippy-Go" rule, in which the batter must run when the ball touches the bat, even if it the contact is unintentional or minor. This rule, seen only in impromptu games, speeds the match up by removing the batsman's right to block the ball.

In Samoa a form of cricket called Kilikiti is played in which hockey stick-shaped bats are used. In original English cricket, the hockey stick shape was replaced by the modern straight bat in the 1760s after bowlers began to pitch the ball instead of rolling or skimming it. In Estonia, teams gather over the winter for the annual Ice Cricket tournament. The game juxtaposes the normal summer pursuit with harsh, wintry conditions. Rules are otherwise similar to those for the six-a-side game.

In addition, there is also Tape ball and Tennis ball cricket. Both variations use a tennis ball instead of a regular cricket ball to play. In Tape ball cricket, the ball is additionally covered with electric tape. The variation was pioneered in Pakistan and is greatly attributed to Pakistan's famous production of Fast bowlers as children are brought up playing the game using a tape ball in which various skills are developed. The increasing popularity of the tape ball in informal, local cricket has transformed the way games are played in cricket-loving nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

International structure[link]

The International Cricket Council (ICC), which has its headquarters in Dubai, is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.

The ICC has 104 members: 10 Full Members that play official Test matches, 34 Associate Members, and 60 Affiliate Members. The ICC is responsible for the organisation and governance of cricket's major international tournaments, notably the Cricket World Cup. It also appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One Day International and Twenty20 Internationals. Each nation has a national cricket board which regulates cricket matches played in its country. The cricket board also selects the national squad and organises home and away tours for the national team. In the West Indies these matters are addressed by the West Indies Cricket Board which consists of members appointed by four national boards and two multi-national boards.

Members[link]

Full Members[link]

Full Members are the governing bodies for cricket in a country or associated countries. Full Members may also represent a geographical area. All Full Members have a right to send one representative team to play official Test matches. Also, all Full Member nations are automatically qualified to play ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals. West Indies cricket team does not represent one country instead an amalgamation of over 20 countries from the Caribbean. The English Cricket team represents both England and Wales.

!Nation	!Governing body	!Member since	ICC Test Championship>Test Rankings	ICC ODI Championship>ODI Rankings	ICC T20 Championship>T20 Rankings
	Cricket Australia		4	1	5
	Bangladesh Cricket Board		9	9
	England and Wales Cricket Board		1	6	1
	Board of Control for Cricket in India		3	2	7
	New Zealand Cricket		8	7	2
	Pakistan Cricket Board		5	5	6
	Cricket South Africa	A	2	3	4
	Sri Lanka Cricket		6	4	3
	West Indies Cricket Board		7	8	8
	Zimbabwe Cricket			10	10

^AResigned May 1961, readmitted 10 July 1991.

Top Associate and Affiliate Members[link]

All the associate and affiliate members are not qualified to play Test Cricket, however ICC grants One Day International status to its associate and affiliate members based on their success in the World Cricket League. The top six teams will be awarded One day international and Twenty20 International status, which will allow the associate and affiliate teams to be eligible to play the full members and play official ODI cricket.

The associate and affiliate teams who currently hold ODI and T20I status:

!Nation	!Governing body	!Member since	ICC ODI Championship>ODI Rankings
	Afghanistan Cricket Board		14
	Cricket Canada		16
	Cricket Ireland		11
	Cricket Kenya		13
	Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond		12
	Cricket Scotland		15

Statistics[link]

Organized cricket lends itself to statistics to a greater degree than many other sports. Each play is discrete and has a relatively small number of possible outcomes. At the professional level, statistics for Test cricket, one-day internationals, and first-class cricket are recorded separately. However, since Test matches are a form of first-class cricket, a player's first-class statistics will include his Test match statistics—but not vice versa. ''The Guide to Cricketers'' was a cricket annual edited by Fred Lillywhite between 1849 and his death in 1866. ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden (1826–1884) as a competitor to ''The Guide to Cricketers''. Its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history.

Certain traditional statistics are familiar to most cricket fans. The basic batting statistics include:

Innings (I): The number of innings in which the batsman actually batted.

Not outs (NO): The number of times the batsman was not out at the conclusion of an innings they batted in.¹

Runs (R): The number of runs scored.

Highest Score (HS/Best): The highest score ever made by the batsman.

Batting Average (Ave): The total number of runs divided by the total number of innings in which the batsman was out. Ave = Runs/[I - NO] (also Avge or Avg.)

Centuries (100): The number of innings in which the batsman scored one hundred runs or more.

Half-centuries (50): The number of innings in which the batsman scored fifty to ninety-nine runs (centuries do not count as half-centuries as well).

Balls Faced (BF): The total number of balls received, including no balls but not including wides.

Strike Rate (SR): The number of runs scored per 100 balls faced. (SR = [100 * Runs]/BF)

Run Rate (RR): Is the number of runs a batsman (or the batting side) scores in an over of six balls.

The basic bowling statistics include:

Overs (O): The number of overs bowled.

Balls (B): The number of balls bowled. Overs is more traditional, but balls is a more useful statistic because the number of balls per over has varied historically.

Maiden Overs (M): The number of maiden overs (overs in which the bowler conceded zero runs) bowled.

Runs (R): The number of runs conceded.

Wickets (W): The number of wickets taken.

No balls (Nb): The number of no balls bowled.

Wides (Wd): The number of wides bowled.

Bowling Average (Ave): The average number of runs conceded per wicket. (Ave = Runs/W)

Strike Rate (SR): The average number of balls bowled per wicket. (SR = Balls/W)

Economy Rate (Econ): The average number of runs conceded per over. (Econ = Runs/overs bowled).

In popular culture[link]

Cricket has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the Commonwealth of Nations and elsewhere. Cricket has had an influence on the lexicon of these nations, especially the English language, with such phrases as "that's not cricket" (unfair), "had a good innings", "sticky wicket", and "bowled over". There have been many cricket films. The term "Bradmanesque" from Don Bradman's name has become a generic term for outstanding excellence, both within cricket and in the wider world. The amateur game has also been spread further afield by expatriates from the Test-playing nations. In the late 19th century, a former cricket player, English-born Henry Chadwick of Brooklyn, New York, was responsible for the "development of the box score, tabular standings, the annual baseball guide, the batting average, and most of the common statistics and tables used to describe baseball". The statistical record is so central to the game's "historical essence" that Chadwick came to be known as Father Baseball.

C.L.R. James's ''Beyond a Boundary'' is a popular book about the sport.

See also[link]

ICC ODI Championship

ICC Player Rankings

ICC Test Championship

List of cricket terms

Blind Cricket

Comparison of cricket and baseball

Outline of cricket

Women's cricket

ICC Cricket World Cup

References[link]

;Notes

External links[link]

International Cricket Council (ICC)

MCC – the official Laws of Cricket

Category:Team sports Category:Ball games Category:Ball and bat games Category:Olympic sports Category:Sports originating in England

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name	Brian Lara
country	West Indies
fullname	Brian Charles Lara
nickname	The Prince
living	true
dayofbirth	2
monthofbirth	5
yearofbirth	1969
placeofbirth	Santa Cruz
countryofbirth	Trinidad
heightft	5
heightinch	8
role	Higher middle order batsman
batting	Left-handed
bowling	Right-arm leg-break
international	true
testdebutdate	6 December
testdebutyear	1990
testdebutagainst	Pakistan
testcap	196
lasttestdate	27 November
lasttestyear	2006
lasttestagainst	Pakistan
odidebutdate	9 November
odidebutyear	1990
odidebutagainst	Pakistan
odicap	59
odishirt	9
lastodidate	21 April
lastodiyear	2007
lastodiagainst	England
club1	Trinidad and Tobago
year1	1987–2008
club2	Transvaal
year2	1992–1993
club3	Warwickshire
year3	1994–1998
club4	Southern Rocks
year4	2010
columns	4
column1	Test
matches1	131
runs1	11,953
bat avg1	52.88
100s/50s1	34/48
top score1	400*
deliveries1	60
wickets1	–
bowl avg1	–
fivefor1	0
tenfor1	0
best bowling1	–
catches/stumpings1	164/–
column2	ODI
matches2	299
runs2	10,405
bat avg2	40.48
100s/50s2	19/63
top score2	169
deliveries2	49
wickets2	4
bowl avg2	15.25
fivefor2	0
tenfor2	n/a
best bowling2	2/5
catches/stumpings2	120/–
column3	FC
matches3	261
runs3	22,156
bat avg3	51.88
100s/50s3	65/88
top score3	501*
deliveries3	514
wickets3	4
bowl avg3	104.00
fivefor3	0
tenfor3	0
best bowling3	1/1
catches/stumpings3	320/–
column4	LA
matches4	429
runs4	14,602
bat avg4	39.67
100s/50s4	27/86
top score4	169
deliveries4	130
wickets4	5
bowl avg4	29.80
fivefor4	0
tenfor4	n/a
best bowling4	2/5
catches/stumpings4	177/–
date	4 February
year	2008
source	http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/52337.html cricinfo.com }}

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM (born 2 May 1969, in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is a former West Indian international cricket player. Lara is generally regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history. The BBC radio commentary on the final day of the innings (6 June 1994), by Dave Roberts, was being broadcast around the world live via the BBC World Service network, and in the UK on BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4 as well as the majority of BBC Local radio stations. That evening, as Lara neared the all-time batting record, a huge surge of fans crowded to enter the grounds.

Lara also holds the record for the highest individual score in a test innings after scoring 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004. He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career. Lara also holds the test record of scoring most number of runs in a single over in a Test match, when he scored 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003.

Lara's match-winning performance of 153 not out against Australia in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1999 has been rated by Wisden as the second best batting performance in the history of Test cricket, next only to the 270 runs scored by Sir Donald Bradman in The Ashes Test match of 1937. Muttiah Muralitharan, rated as the greatest Test match bowler ever by ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', and the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket and in One Day Internationals (ODIs), has hailed Lara as his toughest opponent among all batsmen in the world. Lara was awarded the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World awards in 1994 and 1995 and is also one of only three cricketers to receive the prestigious BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, the other two being Sir Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne. Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as "The Prince of Port of Spain" or simply "The Prince". On 27 November 2009 he was appointed honorary member of the Order of Australia.

Early life[link]

Lara was the 10th of 11 children. Lara's father Bunty and one of his older sisters Agnes Cyrus enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in correct batting technique. Lara's first school was St. Joseph's Roman Catholic primary. He then went to San Juan secondary, which is located in Moreau Road, Lower Santa Cruz. A year later, at fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College where he started his development as a promising young player under cricket coach Mr. Harry Ramdass. Aged 14, he amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league, with an average of 126.16 per innings, which earned him selection for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under-19 youth tournament and that same year, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 cricket.

Lara moved in with his future fellow Trinidadian cricketer Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's father Joey Carew worked with him on his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at Angostura Ltd. in the marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but Lara believed that cricket was his path to success, saying that he wanted to emulate his idols Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks.

Early First-class career[link]

1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when in the West Indies Youth Championships he scored 498 runs breaking the record of 480 by Carl Hooper set the previous year. He captained the tournament-winning Trinidad and Tobago, who profited from a match-winning 116 from Lara.

In January 1988, Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Leeward Islands. In his second first-class match he made 92 against a Barbados attack containing Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall, two greats of West Indies teams. Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup where the West Indies reached the semi-finals. Later that year, his innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the touring Indian team further elevated his reputation.

His first selection for the full West Indies team followed in due course, but unfortunately coincided with the death of his father and Lara withdrew from the team. In 1989, he captained a West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145.

In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest-ever captain, leading them that season to victory in the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his belated Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 and 5. He had made his ODI debut a month earlier against Pakistan, scoring 11. In the 1992 World Cup Lara did well averaging 47.57 with a highest score of 88 retired hurt.

International career[link]

In January 1993, Lara scored 277 versus Australia in Sydney. This, his maiden Test century in his fifth Test, was the turning point of the series as West Indies won the final two Tests to win the series 2–1.Lara went on to name his daughter Sydney after scoring 277 at SCG.

Lara holds several world records for high scoring. He has the highest individual score in both first-class cricket (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994) and Test cricket (400 not out for the West Indies against England in 2004). Lara amassed his world record 501 in 474 minutes off only 427 balls. He hit 308 in boundaries (10 sixes and 62 fours). His partners were Roger Twose (115 partnership – 2nd wicket), Trevor Penney (314 – 3rd), Paul Smith (51 – 4th) and Keith Piper (322 unbroken – 5th). Earlier in that season Lara scored six centuries in seven innings while playing for Warwickshire.

He is the only man to have reclaimed the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. His 400 not out also made him the second player after Donald Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored nine double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve. In 1995 Lara in the Test match away series against England, scored 3 hundreds in Three consecutive Matches which earned him the Man of the Series award. The Test Series was eventually drawn 2–2. He also held the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking Allan Border in an innings of 226 played at Adelaide Oval, Australia in November 2005. This would be later broken by Sachin Tendulkar of India on 17 October 2008 whilst playing against Australia at Mohali in the 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1998 to 1999, when West Indies suffered their first whitewash at the hands of South Africa. Following this they played Australia in a four-Test series which was drawn 2–2, with Lara scoring 546 runs including three centuries and one double hundred. In the second Test at Kingston he scored 213 while in the third Test he scored 153* in the second innings as West Indies chased down 311 with one wicket left. He won the Man of the Match award for both matches and was also named Man of the Series.

In 2001 Lara was named the Man of the Carlton Series in Australia with an average of 46.50, the highest average by a West Indian in that series, scoring two half centuries and one century, 116 against Australia. That same year Lara amassed 688 runs in the three match away Test series against Sri Lanka making three centuries, and one fifty – including the double century and a century in the first and second innings of the 3rd Test Match at the Sinhalese Sports Ground, equating to 42% of the team's runs in that series. These extraordinary performances led Muttiah Muralitharan to state that Lara was the most dangerous batsman he had ever faced.

Lara was reappointed as captain against the touring Australians in 2003, and struck 110 in his first Test match back in charge, showing a return to stellar performance. Later that season, under his captaincy, West Indies won the two match Test series against Sri Lanka 1–0 with Lara making a double century in the First Test. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy.

In March 2005, Lara declined selection for the West Indies team because of a dispute over his personal Cable & Wireless sponsorship deal, which clashed with the Cricket Board's main sponsor, Digicel. Six other players were involved in this dispute, including stars Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo. Lara said he declined selection in a stand of solidarity, when these players were dropped because of their sponsorship deals. The issue was resolved after the first Test of the series against the touring South African team.

Lara returned to the team for the second Test (and scored a huge first innings score of 196), but in the process lost his captaincy indefinitely to the newly-appointed Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the next Test, against the same opponents, he scored a 176 in the first innings. After a one day series against South Africa, he scored his first Test century against the visiting Pakistanis in the first Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados which the West Indies eventually won.

On 26 April 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time. This followed the resignation of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had been captain for thirteen months – in which the West Indies won just one of the 14 Test matches they had competed. In May 2006, Lara led the West Indies to successful One-Day series victories against Zimbabwe and India. Lara's team played Australia in the finals of the DLF Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy where they finished runners up in both finals.

On 16 December 2006 he became the first player for the West Indies to pass 10,000 One Day International runs. along with Sachin Tendulkar one of only two players, at the time, to do so in both forms of the game. On 10 April 2007 Lara confirmed his retirement from one day cricket post the 2007 Cricket World Cup. A few days later he announced that he would in fact be retiring from all international cricket after the tournament.

Lara played his final international game on 21 April 2007 in a dead rubber World Cup game against England. He was run out for 18 after a mix up with Marlon Samuels; England won the game by 1 run. Before the end of this World Cup Glenn McGrath stated that Lara is the greatest batsman that he has ever bowled to.

Retirement[link]

On 19 April 2007 Lara announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, indicating that the West Indies vs England match on 21 April 2007 would be his last international appearance. He was run out after a bad mixup with Marlon Samuels for 18, as England went on to win the match by one wicket.

He announced before the 2007 Cricket World Cup that this would be his last appearance in One Day Internationals. After his last match, in the post-game presentation interview, he asked the fans, "Did I entertain?", to which he received a resounding cheer from the crowd, after which he went out and took his 'lap of honour' where he met and shook hands with many of the fans. Lara stated this would be his last appearance in international cricket, he has also indicated his interest in retaining some involvement in the sport.

On 23 July 2007 Lara agreed to sign for the Indian Cricket League. He is the former captain of the Mumbai Champs. He volunteered to play for his home team Trinidad during the start of 2008 domestic season. He had not played for Trinidad for the last two years. He made his comeback a memorable one with a match winning hundred over Guyana, followed by a dismissive undefeated half-century in the second innings, scored at over two runs per ball. In the third round game (Trinidad got a bye in the second round).

Lara suffered a fractured arm against the Leeward Islands in St Maarten on 19 January, which kept him out of the ICL season. He nevertheless affirmed his commitment to returning to Twenty20 cricket, and on 27 June 2010 appeared for the Marylebone Cricket Club match against a touring Pakistan team, scoring 37 from 32 balls.

The Wisden 100 rates Lara's 153 not out against Australia in Bridgetown in 1998–99 as the second best innings ever after Sir Donald Bradman's 270 against England in Melbourne in 1936–37.

2010 return[link]

After negotiations between Surrey and Lara for the 2010 Friends Provident t20 failed to come to anything, Lara declared that he still wanted to sign a contract to play Twenty20 cricket. Late in the year he joined Southern Rocks, a Zimbabwean side, to compete in the 2010–11 Stanbic Bank 20 Series. On his debut for the Rocks, and his first-ever Twenty20 match, he scored a half-century, top-scoring for the Rocks with 65. He added 34 runs in his next two innings, but then left the competition, citing "commitments elsewhere".

After expressing his interest to play in the 2011 fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and despite not having have played active cricket for four years, Brian Lara still managed to attract the highest reserve price of $400,000 ahead of the IPL players' auction in early January 2011, however no franchise bought him.

Controversies[link]

On the fourth day of the first Test match at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's, Antigua during India's tour of West Indies, 2006, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's flick off Dave Mohammed to the midwicket region was caught by Daren Ganga. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Rahul Dravid declared the innings when confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire's verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara wanted Dhoni to walk-off based on the fielder's assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes. Ultimately, Dhoni walked-off and Dravid's declaration was effected but the game was delayed. Lara was called by the match referee for explanation of his actions but was not fined.

Off the field[link]

Brian Lara has established the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation, which is a charitable organisation in memory of his parents that aims to address health and social care issues. He is an Ambassador for Sport of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and travels on a diplomatic passport to promote his country throughout the world. Brian Lara received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield on Wednesday 10 January 2007. The ceremony took place at the Trinidad Hilton, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

On 7 September 2008 he took part in Soccer Aid 2008, and on 6 June 2010 in Soccer Aid 2010, playing for the Rest of the World vs a team of England celebrities and ex pros. Lara was also a talented football player in his youth and often played with his close friends Dwight Yorke, Shaka Hislop and Russell Latapy while growing up together in Trinidad. Yorke, Hislop and Latapy would go on to play for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Brian Lara is also a golf player. He has participated in golfing tournaments throughout the caribbean region and has won titles. In September 2009, Lara was inducted as an honorary lifetime member of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club.

Personal life[link]

Lara has dated former Durham County Cricket Club receptionist and British lingerie model Lynnsey Ward. During the West Indies tour to Australia in late 2000, Lara was accompanied by Ward.

Lara is the father of a girl called Sydney (born 1996) whom he fathered with Trinidadian journalist and model Leasel Rovedas. Sydney was named as a tribute to one of Lara's favourite grounds, the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Lara scored his first Test century- the highly acclaimed 277 in the 1992–93 season.

His father died in 1989 of a heart attack and his mother died in 2002 of cancer.

In 2009, Lara was made an honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to West Indian and Australian cricket.

In late 2010, Lara and Rovedas welcomed another daughter, Tyla.

Records[link]

Lara struck 277 runs against Australia in Sydney, his maiden Test century, the fourth highest maiden Test century by any batsman, the highest individual score in all Tests between the two teams and the fourth-highest century ever recorded against Australia by any Test batsman.

He became the first man to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings, the first being the record 375 against England and the last being the record 501 not out against Durham.

After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record for highest individual score 375 by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record scoring 400 not out in 2004 against England. With these innings he became the second player to score two Test triple centuries, the second player to score two career quadruple centuries, the only player to achieve both these milestones, and regained the distinction of being the holder of both the record first-class individual innings and the record Test individual innings. He is the only player to break the world record twice.

In the same innings, he became the second batsman to score 1000 Test runs in five different years, four days after Matthew Hayden first set the record.

He was the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, a record he attained on 26 November 2005 until surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar on 17 October 2008. He was the fastest batsmen to score 10,000 (with Sachin Tendulkar) and 11,000 Test runs, in terms of number of innings. He scored 34 centuries; joint-fifth along with Sunil Gavaskar, on the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar (), Jacques Kallis (42), Ricky Ponting (41) and Rahul Dravid (36).

He has the most centuries for a West Indian

Nine of his centuries are double centuries (surpassed only by Donald Bradman)

Two of them are triple-centuries (matched by Australia's Donald Bradman, India's Virender Sehwag, and West Indies' Chris Gayle).

* He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations. He achieved this feat in 2005 by scoring his first Test century against Pakistan at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

He became the sixth batsman to score a century in one session, doing so against Pakistan on 21 November 2006. Lara has scored an 20% of his team runs, a feat surpassed only by Bradman (23%) and George Headley (21%). Lara scored 688 runs (42% of team output, a record for a series of three or more Tests, and the second highest aggregate runs in history for a three-Test series) in the 2001–02 tour of Sri Lanka. He also scored a century and a double century in the third Test in that same Sri Lanka tour, a feat repeated only five other times in Test cricket history.

He has scored the most runs (351) on a losing side in a Test.

He scored the largest proportion (53.83 per cent) of his team's runs in a Test (221 out of 390 and 130 out of 262). He eclipsed the long-standing record of 51.88 per cent by the South African J. H. Sinclair (106 out of 177 and 4 out of 35) against England at Cape Town in an 1898–1899 series. Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs in a single over (28 runs against left-arm spinner RJ Peterson of South Africa) in Test cricket. He also scored 26 runs in a single over off the bowling of Danish Kaneria at Multan Cricket Stadium on 21 November 2006. He scored the ninth fastest Test century, doing so off 77 balls against Pakistan on 21 November 2006. With 164 catches, He is the fourth all-time catch-taker of non-Wicketkeepers, behind Rahul Dravid, Mark Waugh and Stephen Fleming.

In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

Comfortably averaging over 50 per innings (the benchmark for batting greatness in Test cricket), Lara has been ranked the number one batsman in Test cricket in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Cricket Ratings several times. Lara has played some of his best innings in recent years. Wisden published a top 100 list in July 2001, a distillation of the best performances from 1,552 Tests, 54,494 innings and 29,730 bowling performances. Three innings by Lara were placed in the top 15 (the most for any batsman in that range). His 153 not out in Bridgetown, Barbados, during West Indies' 2–2 home series draw against Australia in *1998–1999 was deemed the second greatest Test innings ever played, behind Bradman's 270 against England in the Third Test of the 1936–1937 series at Melbourne.

Man of the Match Awards[link]

Test Cricket[link]

167 375 179 104 213 8/153* 221/130 209 191/1 400* 226/17

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
style="width:40px;"	Runs !! style="width:100px;"|Against !! style="width:175px;"|City/Country !! style="width:195px;"|Venue !! style="width:125px;">Result !! style="width:50px;"|Year
[1]	277	|	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[2]	|		Georgetown, Guyana>Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	West Indies won by an innings and 44 runs	1993
[3]	|		St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda>St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[4]	|		London, England	Kennington Oval	Match Drawn	1995
[5]	|		St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1997
[6]	|		Kingston, Jamaica>Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1999
[7]	|		Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	West Indies won by 1 wicket	1999
[8]	|		Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sport Club Ground	Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets	2001
[9]	|		Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	Match Drawn	2003
[10]	|		Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	West Indies won by 128 runs	2003
[11]	|		St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	2004
[12]	|		Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	Australia won by 7 wickets	2005

One-Day International Cricket[link]

69 88 72 86 128 111* 114 95* 153 Sharjah (city) 82 55* 72 139 169 111 146* 103* 90 88 51 60 117 116* 83* 59* 103* 116 80 156

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
style="width:40px;"	Runs !! style="width:100px;"|Against !! style="width:175px;"|City/Country !! style="width:195px;"|Venue !! style="width:125px;">Result !! style="width:50px;"|Year
[1]	54	|	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 24 runs	1991
[2]	|		Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 12 runs	1992
[3]	|		Melbourne, Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[4]	|		Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 75 runs	1992
[5]	|		Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[6]	|		Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	West Indies won by 124 runs	1993
[7]	|		Bloemfontein, South Africa	Springbok Park	West Indies won by 9 wickets	1993
[8]	|		Kingston, Jamaica>Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1993
[9]	|		Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1993
[10]	|		Sharjah, UAE ||	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 6 wickets	1993
[11]	|		Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1993
[12]	|		Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	West Indies won by 25 runs	1995
[13]	|		Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	West Indies won by 41 runs	1995
[14]	|		Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 133 runs	1995
[15]	|		Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C. A. Stadium	West Indies won by 4 runs	1995
[16]	|		Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 19 runs	1996
[17]	|		Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1996
[18]	|		Perth, Western Australia>Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1997
[19]	|		Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1997
[20]	|		Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 43 runs	1997
[21]	|		Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines>Saint Vincent	Arnos Vale Ground	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1998
[22]	|		Singapore	Kallang Ground	West Indies won by 42 runs	1999
[23]	|		Dhaka, Bangladesh	Bangabandhu National Stadium	West Indies won by 109 runs	1999
[24]	|		Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	Australia won by 28 runs	2001
[25]	|		Perth, Western Australia>Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 44 runs	2001
[26]	|		Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	West Indies won by 7 wickets	2002
[27]	|		Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	West Indies won by 29 runs	2002
[28]	|		Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands	West Indies won by 3 runs	2003
[29]	|		Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 39 runs	2003
[30]	|		Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	West Indies won by 58 runs	2005

See also[link]

''Brian Lara Cricket series of video games''

Brian Lara Stadium

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Brian Lara's Test Statistics (by HowSTAT!)

Brian Lara at IMDB.com

Category:West Indies One Day International cricketers Category:West Indies Test cricketers Category:West Indian cricket captains Category:West Indian cricketers Category:West Indian cricketers of 1970–71 to 1999–2000 Category:West Indian cricketers of the 21st century Category:Trinidad and Tobago cricketers Category:Northerns cricketers Category:Warwickshire cricketers Category:Warwickshire cricket captains Category:Wisden Cricketers of the Year Category:World XI Test cricketers Category:ICC World XI One Day International cricketers Category:Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup Category:Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:Honorary Members of the Order of Australia Category:Southern Rocks cricketers

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playername	Wayne Dillon Parnell
country	South Africa
fullname	Wayne Dillon Parnell
living	true
dayofbirth	30
monthofbirth	7
yearofbirth	1989
placeofbirth	Port Elizabeth, Cape Province
countryofbirth	South Africa
nickname	Pigeon, Parny
batting	Left-handed
bowling	Left-arm fast-medium
role	Bowler
international	true
testdebutdate	14 January
testdebutyear	2010
testdebutagainst	England
lasttestdate	14 February
lasttestyear	2010
lasttestagainst	India
odidebutdate	30 January
odidebutyear	2009
odidebutagainst	Australia
odicap	94
lastodidate	22 January
lastodiyear	2012
lastodiagainst	Sri Lanka
t20idebutdate	13 January
t20idebutyear	2009
t20idebutagainst	Australia
lastt20idate	19 February
lastt20iyear	2012
lastt20iagainst	New Zealand
club1	Eastern Province
year1	2006–2007
club2	Warriors
year2	2008–
clubnumber2	36
club3	Kent
year3	2009
clubnumber3	36
club4	Delhi Daredevils
year4	2010
club5	Pune Warriors
year5	2011–
deliveries	balls
columns	4
column1	Test
matches1	3
runs1	34
bat avg1	17.00
100s/50s1	0/0
top score1	22
deliveries1	306
wickets1	5
bowl avg1	45.40
fivefor1	0
tenfor1	0
best bowling1	2/17
catches/stumpings1	1/–
column2	ODI
matches2	21
runs2	137
bat avg2	19.57
100s/50s2	0/0
top score2	49
deliveries2	1,064
wickets2	33
bowl avg2	31.75
fivefor2	2
tenfor2	n/a
best bowling2	5/48
catches/stumpings2	2/–
column3	FC
matches3	35
runs3	956
bat avg3	22.23
100s/50s3	0/4
top score3	90
deliveries3	5,474
wickets3	85
bowl avg3	37.07
fivefor3	0
tenfor3	0
best bowling3	4/7
catches/stumpings3	11/–
column4	LA
matches4	68
runs4	688
bat avg4	23.72
100s/50s4	1/0
top score4	104
deliveries4	3,115
wickets4	97
bowl avg4	30.49
fivefor4	2
tenfor4	n/a
best bowling4	5/48
catches/stumpings4	10/–
date	23 January
year	2012
source	http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/265564.html Cricinfo }}

Wayne Dillon Parnell (born 30 July 1989) is a cricketer who plays Tests, One Day International and Twenty20 matches for South Africa. At domestic level he plays for the Warriors having previously represented Eastern Province, he has also played county cricket for Kent. In 2010, Parnell was signed by the Delhi Daredevils for the 2010 Indian Premier League, in 2011 he joined the Pune Warriors.

Domestic cricket[link]

Eastern Province[link]

Parnell made his first-class debut for Eastern Province in October 2006, at the age of seventeen, against South Western Districts scoring 17 and taking one wicket. In his second first-class match, he recorded figures of four for seven, and, in only his fifth first-class match, he took a hat-trick against Western Province: all three batsman were bowled.

Kent[link]

At the start of the 2009 season Parnell was signed as an overseas player by Kent on a six week contract, serving as a replacement for Stuart Clark. On his county debut against Essex he took 4/78 in the first innings and top scored with 69 in the second, his maiden first-class fifty the innings contained 11 boundaries. Despite following on Kent won the match, with Parnell claiming three further wickets. In Kent's next first-class match, against Glamorgan he bettered his maiden fifty with an innings of 90, again top scoring from number eight. Parnell left Kent to join up with South Africa ahead of the World Twenty20, but after the tournament he returned for a further five weeks. Opening the bowling in Kent's successful defence of 149 runs against Durham in the Twenty20 Cup quarter-final, Parnell dismissed opening batsmen Phil Mustard for a golden duck from the first delivery of the Dynamos' run chase and David Warner in the second over of his spell, also for a duck. Though returning to South Africa after his second spell ends, Parnell has been cleared by Cricket South Africa to return to Kent and feature for the Spitfires on finals day of the competition.

International cricket[link]

Parnell was selected as captain of the South Africa team for the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup having also played for the team in 2006 U/19 Cricket World Cup. He finished the 2008 tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 18 wickets at 8.38. In the quarter-final against Bangladesh he took six for eight as well as top-scoring with 57.

Parnell was selected in the ODI and T20 squads for South Africa's tour of Australia in 2008–09, and made his international debut in the second Twenty20 International at Brisbane on 13 January 2009. He was expensive with the ball and put down a crucial catch, but it was later suggested that this was the result of a green laser light beamed into his eyes by a member of the crowd.

Parnell was included in South Africa's squad for the third and final Test against Australia in Cape Town and although he wasn't selected, he was again named for the Twenty20 and ODI series which followed. Sharing the new ball with Dale Steyn, he played a key role in South Africa's seven-wicket win in the second ODI at Centurion by taking four for 25.

In May 2009 Parnell was selected in the South African squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in England. He had an excellent tournament, taking nine wickets at 13.22 with an economy rate of less than six. Against the hosts he took figures of 3/14, which included an opening spell of 2–0–2–1. In the following match against the West Indies he was named man-of-the-match after taking 4/13. His performances earned him a place in the World team of the tournament. Parnell won the golden ball for being the leading wicket taker in the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 with 11 wickets.

Education[link]

Parnell matriculated from Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 2007. He is currently studying Human Resource Management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (2009).

Conversion to Islam[link]

On 28 July 2011 Parnell announced that he has converted to Islam. He converted to Islam in January 2011, after a period of personal study. Parnell confirmed that his team-mates Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir along with team manager Mohammad Moosajee had no influence over his decision to convert to Islam.

References[link]

External links[link]

Cricinfo Profile

CricketArchive Profile

Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:South African cricketers Category:South Africa Test cricketers Category:South Africa One Day International cricketers Category:South Africa Twenty20 International cricketers Category:Eastern Province cricketers Category:Kent cricketers Category:Warriors cricketers Category:People from Port Elizabeth Category:Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup Category:Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University alumni Category:Sussex cricketers Category:South African Muslims Category:Converts to Islam from Christianity Category:Pune cricketers

ml:വെയ്ൻ വലീദ് പാർനൽ mr:वेन पार्नेल ta:வேயின் பார்னெல்