Tour of West Indies 1991-92          Captain: Kepler Wessels

Fifteenth official Test tour

First Test-playing tour of West Indies by South Africa

          (April 1992)

President F W de Klerk’s reforms brought an end to the existing political system and enabled South Africa to return to international cricket. India was the first country to invite them for a one-day international series in 1991 and they then participated in the 1992 ICC World Cup. South Africa was also welcomed back into the fold to play their first Test match since isolation 22 years before. The choice of opponent, West Indies, was the first Test side from a black or Asian nation they had ever played against. Nelson Mandela persuaded the West Indies to host South Africa's cricketers for their first Test tour since re-admission and the cricket boards agreed the tour on 3 March, during the World Cup. Voting was then taking place in South Africa on further dismantling apartheid, and once this was passed, the tour went ahead.

As a result of the township programme a team of under-19s selected from all race groups was brought to West Indies at the same time as the national team. However, the only non-white representative in the national side was Omar Henry.

There were no side matches on the one-month tour.  West Indies won the three one-day internationals very easily but South Africa were on top throughout the one-off Test match at Kensington Oval. They needed only 79 runs to win with eight wickets standing on the final day of the match, yet those wickets fell to Walsh and Ambrose for 22 runs. Fewer than 500 spectators saw it.  Local people had boycotted the match because Barbadian bowler Anderson Cummins was omitted from the West Indies XI.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

Next tour

Sri Lanka 1993 

Members of the Test tour party (14)

Opening batsmen:  Andrew Hudson, Kepler Wessels, Mark Rushmere

Middle-order batsmen  Peter Kirsten, Hansie Cronje, Jonty Rhodes, Adrian Kuiper

Wicket-keepers  Dave Richardson

Spin bowlers  Omar Henry

Fast bowlers  Allan Donald, Tertius Bosch, Meyrick Pringle, Richard Snell, Corrie van Zyl.

Representation of teams:    

Br - Border (1)

EP Eastern Province (2)

N - Natal (2)

N Tv - Northern Transvaal (2)

OFS - Orange Free State (4)

T - Transvaal (1)

WP - Western Province (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(18 April 1992) :

       27 yrs  10 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Wessels 24 for Australia;  Bosch 0,  Cronje 0,  Donald 0,  Henry 0,  Hudson 0,  Kirsten 0,  Kuiper 0,  Pringle 0,  Rhodes 0,  Richardson 0,  Rushmere 0,  Snell 0,  van Zyl 0.

Team Officials

Selectors

Peter van der Merwe (Convenor of selectors), Rushdie Magiet,

Selection

Unavailable:

Tour Party Announced: 1992.

Not selected

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  x days  (selection to 3 April)

Travel

Departure from South Africa was on 3 April.   At 10 o'clock on the morning of 4 April 1992, the first-ever South African Airlines plane to arrive in Jamaica touched down at the Norman Manley airport, Kingston.

Time spent in

   21 days

(4 April - 25 April)

On-tour selection panel

Kepler Wessels  (captain),  Alan Jordaan  (manager),  Mike Procter (coach)

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

§  one-day international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:  14 days

(4 April 1992 - 18 April)

Test appearances on tour

1 -   Bosch,  Cronje,  Donald,  Hudson,  Kirsten,  Kuiper,  Pringle,  Richardson,  Rushmere,  Snell,  Wessels.

0 -   Henry,  Rhodes,  van Zyl.

Highlights

•   Kepler Wessels, with 24 Test appearances for Australia to his name, became the 13th player to represent two countries at Test level.

•   36 year-old Peter Kirsten was the second-oldest South African to make his Test debut. Omar Henry took the record from GWA Chubb (aged 40 in 1951) six months later when he was 40 years and 295 days-old on debut.

•   Andrew Hudson made a century (163) on Test debut, the first South African to do so.

•   Snell took four wickets twice (4-83 and 4-74) to help dismiss West Indies for little more than 250 runs in each innings.

Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

25 April 1992

Time away from South Africa    23 days  (3 April to 26 April)