The major focus of attention in South African cricket is and has been the World Cup. When South Africa take on the West Indies in Cape Town on February 9th to get the tournament under way, the value of the international programme in 2002 should be seen. It might be generally considered that Test cricket takes precedence over one-day internationals, but perhaps not when there is a World Cup to be played at home. Hence the split between 38 one-dayers and just nine Tests in the calendar year.

In both varieties of the game, South Africa began the year and ended it as the second best team in the world – behind the inevitable Australians. Having said that, the vagaries of the ICC Test Championship table mean that South Africa are poised to take over the number one spot providing they can avoid defeat by Pakistan in Cape Town at the outset of 2003. That is despite the fact that the Australians proved themselves to better team when they met in 2002.

By beating Pakistan so comprehensively in the final Test of 2002 to go one-up, what seems to be the formality of preventing Pakistan levelling the two-match series at Newlands will mean that South Africa emerge into 2003 as Test Championship leaders. It might not be a true reflection of world cricketing power, but it will at least inject some much-needed interest into the largely irrelevant table.

The Test year began with a ten-wicket defeat at the hands of those Australians but, having trailed by the little matter of 400 on first innings in Sydney, there was something to be savoured by South Africa from making the opposition bat again. And anyway, this was only the half-way mark of the series because there were to be three more Tests to be played at home.

Before that, there was the VB Series of one-day internationals with New Zealand providing the third country for the triangular tournament. It was presumed that South Africa would meet Australia in the finals, but that discounted the clever manipulation of the bonus point system employed by the Kiwis to deprive the hosts of a final berth.

South Africa got off to a great start by beating Australia by four wickets in Melbourne, although they lost the three other encounters in the series. However, one defeat in four meetings with New Zealand ensured that those two visiting countries contested the best of three finals. South Africa needed only two matches to see off the Kiwis two-nil to take the trophy. Would this prove to be an omen for the first one-day series to be played in 2003?

The return Test series at home to Australia was billed as a challenge between "the Kings of Cricket." In the event, it became evident that there was one crown and a pretender to the throne. Australia won the first Test by an innings and 360 runs. South Africa set Australia 331 to win the second and they got them for the loss of six wickets. In turn, Australia set South Africa 335 to win the third Test and the home side triumphed with five wickets down.

In the one-day series that followed, Australia went two-nil up, the third match at Potchefstroom was tied, before Australia won the next three off the reel. With the aid of that celebrated duo of Duckworth and Lewis, South Africa enjoyed the consolation of a win in the final match.

South Africa broke new ground by travelling to North Africa to play in the inaugural Morocco Cup. Pakistan were seen off in both preliminary matches, while Sri Lanka proved too strong in both meetings before the final. In that too, Sri Lanka were 27 runs to the good when the final ball was bowled.

Before the 2002/03 season could get under way back home, the Champions Trophy in Colombo offered a chance for more World Cup preparations. They went well. A nervous win against West Indies by two wickets showed that there was steel in the tail, while the Kenyans were seen off by a massive margin. There was another tight finish in the semi-final, but this time it was South Africa who lost out – by ten runs to India.

Herschelle Gibbs took a hundred off both the Kenyan and Indian attacks. In his next one-day international, he scored 153 against Bangladesh in the predictably lop-sided series and, as South Africa romped to a ten-wicket win in the second match. Gibbs was 96 not out with six runs still required for the win. However, a wide that went to the boundary from leg-spinner Alok Kapali brought the scores level with Gibbs needing a boundary to reach a record fourth consecutive one-day hundred.

A powerful drive down the field was cut off by the fielder racing round from wide long on, and the run taken ended the match with Gibbs stranded on 97 off 66 balls including 19 boundaries. He was denied his record and the fastest one-day hundred for South Africa as well.

Had the Tests against Bangladesh been a boxing match, they would have been stopped in round one as a mismatch. As it was, they were over on the fourth and third days. To be fair, Sri Lanka offered little more resistance in the two Tests that followed, although a nervous finish to the second did make for some excitement.

South Africa won the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka by four matches to one, and achieved a similar margin against Pakistan. These wins can only serve to bolster confidence in anticipation of the World Cup, although the odd defeat should serve as a warning about what can happen in one-off matches. If one of those matches was at the knock-out stage, a nation's dreams could be shattered.

On the subject of which, one event of 2002 must not go unrecorded. There were plenty of stirring performances by individuals on the field, but the one event that overshadowed everything else in South African cricket in 2002 did not take place anywhere near a cricket ground.

On June 2nd, a cargo plane on which Hanse Cronje was a passenger crashed into Cradock Peak, near George, when trying to land in heavy rain. The man who had been South Africa's most successful captain and a national icon before getting caught in a web of deceit and corruption was killed. With him went truths that might now never be told. Whatever the dreadful impact his misdeeds had inflicted on the fragile world of cricket, a human being lost his life. A leather jacket and a fistful of dirty money no longer seemed that important.

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