Tour of England 2003                 Captain: Graeme Smith

33rd official Test tour

Thirteenth Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

 (June - September 2003) 

At the age of only 22, South Africa’s new captain Graeme Smith scored 277 at Edgbaston, the highest individual innings by a South African in Test cricket, and followed it with 259 at Lord’s.

South Africa won by an innings at Lord’s, breaking all sorts of batting records, and recovered from England levelling the series at Trent Bridge with an overpowering victory in the next match at Headingley. When they scored 484 at The Oval, a series victory for the first time in England seemed assured but for the first time the bowlers could not overcome an easy pitch which allowed England to come back determinedly.  For South Africa, the tour ended unfulfilled at two matches-all.

Having won all but one of their six one-day matches in the NatWest triangular series (with Zimbabwe), the South Africans then lost the final, scoring a feeble 107 and sustaining the image of being nervous finishers.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

Bangladesh 2002-03

Next tour

Pakistan 2003-04

Next tour of  of England

2008

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen  Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs

Middle-order batsmen  Boeta Dippenaar, Neil McKenzie, Jacques Kallis, Jacques Rudolph, Gary Kirsten

Wicket-keepers  Mark Boucher, Thami Tsolekile

Spin bowlers  Robin Peterson, Paul Adams

Fast bowlers  Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Dewald Pretorius, Charl Willoughby, Monde Zondeki.

Representation of teams:   

Br - Border (3)

Es  -  Easterns (1)

EP - Eastern Province (1)

FS - Free State (2)

G  - Gauteng (0)

KZN - Kwa Zulu Natal (1)

N - Northerns (2)

WP - Western Province (7)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(24 July 2003) :  27 yrs  10 months.

ODI   member of squad for the NatWest one-day international triangular.

Test Appearances made before the tour

G Kirsten 92,  Pollock 74,  Kallis 70,  Boucher 64,  Gibbs 49,  Adams 39,  Ntini 35,  McKenzie 34,  Dippenaar 24,  Smith 16,  Hall 6,  Rudolph 6,  Peterson 2,  Pretorius 1,  Willoughby 1,  Tsolekile 0,  Zondeki 0.

Team Officials

Adrian le Roux took the job of fitness trainer in June, having previously worked for a year with India.

Selectors

Selection

Unavailable:  Neil McKenzie was chosen for the tour but failed a fitness test on 10 June on the torn disc in his lower back and Boeta Dippenaar was added to the one-day squad.

Touring party announced:  Monday 19 May 2003.

Not selected :  Lance Klusener. He was described by Graeme Smith as a disruptive influence on the team. Klusener then threatened the UCB  with legal action for loss of earnings.  When Kallis’s father died, Klusener offered to reinforce the team should Kallis not wish to return to England but the selectors called up Andrew Hall instead.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  x days

(19 May to depart in Saf)

Travel

Dewald Pretorius was already in England playing for Durham in the County Championship.

The squad gathered in Pretoria for a three-day training camp on 13 June.

Departrure was on approx 15 June.  The South African one-day squad arrived in Dublin on Monday 16 June, without Jacques Kallis and Nicky Boje.  Kallis stayed back for family reasons, while Boje remained at home for the birth of his first child. They joined the squad in England on Saturday 21 June.

Kirsten, Peterson, Tsolekile, Willoughby and Zondeki arrived at the end of the one-day triangular series

Time spent in British Isles

   x days

(16 June - depart Host)

On-tour selection panel

Graeme Smith (captain),  Eric Simons (coach),  ……..

Omar Henry (convenor of  selectors) was present in England during the tour.

Reinforcements

Nicky Boje flew back home to recuperate from the injury to his left leg sustained during the NatWest Series. Shaun Pollock returned to South Africa to be with his pregnant wife, and came back on 18 July.

Jacques Kallis returned home at the end of the one-day series and missed the first 2 Tests to be with his father who died on 21 July.  Andrew Hall was called up on 29 July, having gone from the ODI squad to play county cricket for Worcestershire.

Hall took part in the Test match at Lord’s but was given special permission to play for Worcestershire in a limited-overs semi-final. He then rejoined the squad to make a decisive impact in the Headingley Test, which Shaun Pollock missed through returning to Durban to attend the birth of his daughter.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in British Isles before First Test: 

  38 days

(16 June - 24 July)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Boucher,  Gibbs,  Ntini,  Rudolph,  Smith.

4 -  Hall,  Kirsten, Pollock.

3 -  Adams,  Dippenaar,  Kallis,  McKenzie,  Pretorius.

2 - 

1 -  Peterson,  Willoughby,  Zondeki.

0 -  Tsolekile.

Highlights

•  Graeme Smith on his first Test appearance in England scored 277 at Edgbaston, the highest individual innings by a South African in Test cricket. 

•  He and Herschelle Gibbs made an opening stand of 338, the highest by any country against England.

•  Smith followed his massive innings at Edgbaston with 259, the highest by an overseas player at Lord’s.

•  Gary Kirsten (108) and Boeta Dippenaar (92) helped South Africa to its highest innings total in Tests of 682 for 6

•  Ntini took ten wickets at Lord’s, returning figures of  5-73 and 5-145 in 48 overs.

•  After being 21 for 4 in their first innings, Kirsten scored another century at Headingley (130) before Andrew Hall’s 99* and Kallis’s bowling (6-54) ensured a South African win by a comfortable margin of 191 runs

•  Herschelle Gibbs (183 at The Oval) hit the most boundaries in a Test century, apart from Flintoff in 2001

•  Shaun Pollock took his 300th Test wicket at The Oval. He had earlier taken 6-39 at Trent Bridge.

Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

Boje left for South Africa on 16 July.

5th Test ended  8 September 2003

Time away from South Africa    x days  

(depart SAf to arrive home in S AfI)

Finances