Tour of South Africa 2001-02               Captain: Steve Waugh

Australia’s 72nd Test tour

(February - April 2002)

Tenth Test-playing tour of South Africa by Australia

(previous tour was in 1997)

This tour marked the beginning of the end for the Waugh dynasty. After 325 appearances in limited-overs internationals, captaining in 106 of them, Steve Waugh learned the day before the tour started that he would not be leading the one-day side. Further diminishing his role, the Australian selection process for overseas tours was overhauled, with the captain no longer playing a part in picking the sides. From now on responsibility would rest with a member of the national selection panel travelling with the touring party.

Twin brother Mark was also dropped from the one-day squad against South Africa and cancellation of the Zimbabwe tour cost him an opportunity to get back immediately into the Australian side. Mark did not play any more one-day internationals after the South African tour but his Test career did not quite come to a close - he was chosen for one more series against Pakistan.

The Australians won both of the season’s Test series against South Africa, at home (3-0) and away (2-1), by an overall advantage of 5 matches to one.  In the first Test match at Johannesburg Australia won by the second biggest margin of victory in Test history. In the course of  Australia’s innings of 652-7d Matthew Hayden scored his fourth century (122) in consecutive Tests (and his next innings at Cape Town was 96). Damien Martyn scored 133 and Adam Gilchrist 204 not out, adding 317 runs together for the sixth wicket, before Glenn McGrath (3-28 and 5-21) bowled out South Africa twice.

At Cape Town Shane Warne made his 100th Test appearance and took 8 wickets as well as scoring a fifty while Ricky Ponting scored 100* as Australia reached its victory target of 334. The South Africans bounced back in the next Test match at Durban by themselves meeting a target of more than 300.

Australia won five of the seven ODIs (one match was tied), the South Africans taking a remarkable final match at the end of the limited overs series. At Port Elizabeth South Africa had posted their biggest one-day total (326-3) against Australia but the vistors responded with 330-7, the highest winning score by a team batting second in one-dayers.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

England 2001

Next tours

Zimbabwe 2002 cancelled

To UAE v Pakistan 2002-03

Next tour of South Africa

2005-06

Members of the Test tour party  (15)

Opening batsmen  Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer

Middle-order batsmen: Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh.

Wicket-keeper:Adam Gilchrist

All-rounder:Shane Watson

Spin bowlers:Stuart MacGill, Shane Warne

Fast bowlers:Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath.

⋄  Player contracted to Cricket Australia

State representation

   Pura Cup teams

NSW   New South Wales (5)

Qld  Queensland (2)

SA   South Australia (2)

Tas   Tasmania (2)

Vic   Victoria (1)

WA  Western Australia (3)

Watson moved from Queensland to Tasmania during the 2000-01 domestic season.

⋄  contracted player

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (22 February 2002) :

       30 yrs  5 months.

ODI member of the one-day squad for the Standard Bank series

Test Appearances made before the tour

S Waugh 145,  M Waugh 122,  Warne 98,  McGrath 81,  Ponting 53,  Langer 48,  Gillespie 30,  Gilchrist 28,  Hayden 27,  Martyn 22,  Lee 18,  MacGill 17,  Lehmann 5,  Bichel 6,  Watson 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Trevor Hohns  (chairman),  Allan Border,  David Boon  and  Andrew Hilditch.

Selection

Unavailable:  none

Test Tour Party Announced:  30 January 2002.

Darren Lehmann got back into the Test squad for the first time since the 1998-99 series against England.

Not selected : Contracted players not included were Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, Damien Fleming, Simon Katich, Shane Lee, Martin Love, Ashley Noffke, Michael Slater and Andrew Symonds.

After 325 appearances in limited-overs internationals, captaining in 106 of them, Steve Waugh learned the day before departure that he would not be leading the one-day side.  He said that he was disappointed by the decision but would be working to regain his place in the team.   

Ponting was named as captain of one-day side next day.

Squad for one-day series announced:  4 March 2002.

Time between selection and departure from Australia      

 15 days

(30 January - 14 February

Travel

Sydney   Q  Johannesburg

The players flew out of Sydney on Thursday 14 February and landed at Johannesburg. They drove straight from the airport to Potchefstroom, 120km west of Johannesburg.

Members of the one-day squad -  Bevan, Hauritz, Harvey, Maher - left Sydney for South Africa on 17 March.

Time spent in South Africa

   55 days

(14 February - 10 April)

On-tour selection

The Australian selection process for overseas tours was overhauled for the South African series, with the captain, coach and vice-captain no longer playing a part in picking the sides. Responsibility would now rest solely with the National Selection Panel.  One selector would ideally travel with touring parties from now on.

Reinforcements

  None

Fixtures/Results

The planned itinerary in Zimbabwe was cancelled

§  one-day international in the Standard Bank series

Time spent in South Africa before First Test: 

  8 days

(14 February - 22 February)

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Gilchrist,  Gillespie,  Hayden,  Langer,  Lee,  McGrath,  Martyn,  Ponting,  Warne.  M Waugh,  S Waugh.

0  -   Bichel,  Lehmann,  MacGill,  Watson.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned 

u unknown result

Australia’s six previous Test tour results:

in England 2001 (5 Tests)

 - won 4-1

in India 2000-01 (3 Tests)

 - lost 1-2

in N Zealand 1999-00 (3 Tests)

 - won 3-0

in Zimbabwe 1999-00 (1 Test)

 - won 1-0

in Sri Lanka 1999-00 (3 Tests)

 - lost 0-1

in West Indies 1999 (4 Tests)

 - drawn 2-2

Highlights

•   In the first Test at Johannesburg Australia won by the second biggest margin of victory in Test history.

•   In  Australia’s innings of 652-7d Matthew Hayden scored his fourth century (122) in consecutive Tests (his next innings at Cape Town was 96).

•   Damien Martyn scored 133 and Adam Gilchrist 204 not out, adding 317 runs together for the sixth wicket

•   Glenn McGrath (3-28 and 5-21) then bowled out South Africa twice.

•   At Cape Town Shane Warne played his 100th Test and took 8 wickets, as well as scoring a fifty.

•   Ricky Ponting scored 100* at Cape Town as Australia reached its target of 334, a feat equalled by South Africa in the next Test match at Durban.

•   Adam Gilchrist ended the three-match series with 473 runs and an average of 157.

•   In the ODI at Port Elizabeth Australia scored 330-7: the highest winning score by a team batting second in one-dayers. This came after South Africa had posted their biggest one-day total (326-3) against Australia.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Johannesburg  Q  Sydney

Mark Waugh, Stephen Waugh, Justin Langer and Stuart MacGill returned to Australia at the end of the Test series, arriving back at Sydney on 23 March after an eleven-hour flight.

At the end of the tour Australia's one-day cricketers flew out of Johannesburg on Wednesday 10 April, four weeks ahead of schedule due to cancellation of the Zimbabwe matches.

Time away from Australia

   56 days  

(14 February to 11 April)

Finances

Travelex, foreign exchange specialists, were the international tour partner of the Australian Cricket Board and sponsored the tour.

Accounts of the tour

“Captain’s Diary 2002”   by Steve Waugh  (Harper Sports, 2002)

Postscript

Steve Waugh’s replacement as one-day captain marked the start of Ricky Ponting’s long career as Australian skipper, which lasted until the end of the 2010-11 season.

Mark Waugh did not play any more one-day internationals after the South African tour but his Test career did not quite come to a close - he was chosen for one more series against Pakistan (held in Colombo and Sharjah) which was his last Test appearance.