Tour of India 1999-2000          Captain: Hansie Cronje

27th official test tour

Second Test-playing tour of India by South Africa

(February - March 2000)

Lance Klusener was given a four-match ban after being involved in a quarrel with Zimbabwe's Guy Whittall during a one-day game in Port Elizabeth but the sentence was suspended for three months, so he was able to take part in this tour.

The tour management persuaded the BCCI to change its original schedule which had the first Test in Bangalore and the second Test in Bombay, Being able to spend the first 10 days in Mumbai and then having only one flight between the first two tests has helped the players to settle in.

Skipper Cronje later admitted being in constant touch with Indian bookmakers during this tour and of drawing other players into his match-fixing activities. As a result he was eventually banned for life and Herschelle Gibbs suspended for six months.

Fast bowler Makhaya Ntini joined the squad for the Sharjah leg of the tour only. It was the first time Ntini has been picked for South Africa since winning an appeal against conviction and a six-year jail sentence for rape the previous year, a conviction which was overturned on appeal.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

Zimbabwe 1999-00

Next tour

Sri Lanka 2000

Next tour of India

2004-05.

Members of the Test tour party (14)

Opening batsmen  Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Gary Kirsten

Middle-order batsmen  Hansie Cronje, Jacques Kallis, Daryll Cullinan, Pieter Strydom

Wicket-keepers  Mark Boucher

All-rounders: Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock

Spin bowlers  Nicky Boje, Clive Eksteen,

Fast bowlers  Allan Donald, Nantie Hayward.

not Nicky Boje

Louis Koen

Representation of teams:   

Br - Border (2)

EP Eastern Province (1)

FS  -  Free State (4)

G  - Gauteng (2)

KZN - Kwa Zulu Natal (2)

WP - Western Province (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(24 February 2000) :

       28 yrs  2 months

ODI  In tour party for the one-day international series in India

CCC  Coca-Cola Cup series in Sharjah

Test Appearances made before the tour

Cronje 66,  Donald 60,  Kirsten 58,  Cullinan 55,  Pollock 40,  Kallis 34,  Klusener 27,  Boucher 26,  Gibbs 19,  Eksteen 6,  Hayward 3,  Dippenaar 2,  Strydom 1,  Boje 0. 

Team Officials

Selectors

Rushdie Magiet (convener), Morris Garda,  Gerald Majola,  Mike Procter,  Clive Rice  and  Kepler Wessels.

Selection

Unavailable: Jonty Rhodes (family reasons); David Terbrugge injured; Daryll Cullinan retired

Allan Donald, 32, was initially reluctant to tour India, but he made himself available on 18 January after the United Cricket Board of South Africa persuaded him to participate in the Test series. 

Paul Adams was fit again after breaking the middle finger of his bowling hand.

Test tour Party Announced :  7 February 2000.

Not selected : Ashwell Prince and Charl Willoughby

Withdrawal:  Paul Adams (injured again, trying to save a boundary) withdrew on 12 February; Nicky Boje replaced him.

One Day Squad for India and Sharjah announced:  14 February 2000.

Dale Benkenstein, Neil McKenzie, Steve Elworthy, Henry Williams and Derek Crookes would join the squad for five one-day matches in India.  Makhaya Ntini would join the tour party for Sharjah only.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  9 days

(7 February to 16 February)

Travel

The 14-member Test team left Johannesburg on Wednesday 16 February on a South African Airways flight, arriving in Bombay early on Thursday morning. They waited three hours for the baggage to arrive, finally checked in to their hotel at 3.15 a.m.

Time spent in India

   32 days

(17 February - 20 March)

On-tour selection panel

Hansie Cronje (captain),  Shaun Pollock (vice-captain),  Graham Ford (coach).

Reinforcements

When four players returned home, as arranged, on the evening after the Bangalore Test, injured Lance Klusener (ankle), Henry Williams (shoulder) and fast bowler Mornantau Hayward (stomach muscle) remained with the team.

Louis Koen came into the one-day side in Indiain place of Nicky Boje?, while Charl Willoughby came into the team for the Coca Cola one-day series in Sharjah in place of Henry Williams who flew back home and the ODIs in India. Willoughby arrived in Sharjah early on Wednesday morning 22 March.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in India before First Test:   7 days

(17 February - 24 February)

Test appearances on tour

Highlights

•   Joining the tour allowed Allan Donald to increase the 290 wickets he had taken in 67 Tests to 300.

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Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

On the evening of 6 March after the Bangalore Test four players - Dippenaar, Cullinan, Donald and Eksteen - returned to South Africa.  Boje (?)

The South Africans together with the Indian team flew out of Mumbai on an Emirates flight, landing in Dubai on Monday afternoon 20 March to take part in the three-nation Coca-Cola Cup Cricket Tournament, The two teams were driven straight from the airport to Holiday International hotel.  The players wives and girlfriends also arrived in Sharjah on Monday, giving the players a tonic after nearly five weeks in each others’ company

Return to South Africa was on 1 April 2000.

Time away from South Africa    45 days  

(16 February to 1 April)