Ever since lockdown started, the Daily Voice has given you a weekly countdown of the best sports stars this country has produced since 1992.
In the first five weeks we gave you the best Springboks, we then had the top 50 Bafana players and now it’s the chance of the Proteas.
With three different formats to choose from - Test, ODI and T20 - it’s a difficult task.
But we took an in-depth look at the statistics over the last 28 years.
And this is what we found.
Enjoy our top 50 post-isolation cricket stars.
50 Brett Schultz
(9 Tests, 1 ODI)
IN THE words of Proteas legend Herschelle Gibbs when he picked him in his all-time SA XI: “He’s a bowler the world unfortunately never got to see enough of... evil as f**k.”
Schultz is proof that there is such a thing as irreplaceable. Yes, he only played in nine Tests, but ask anyone who watched him in those early days and they’ll tell you he was unplayable.
The fearsome “Bear” will always be remembered for taking 20
wickets in three Tests against Sri Lanka in 1993.
Injuries, however, saw him end his international career in 1997 after only nine Tests.
Statistically, Schultz shouldn’t be anywhere near the top 50, but because we haven’t seen a left-arm speedster like him again, he cracks the nod.
Another player we would have liked to see more of is fellow paceman Mfuneko Ngam, who only played in three Tests because of injury.
49 Lonwabo Tsotsobe (5 Tests, 61 ODIs,
23 T20Is)
DISGRACED ex-Proteas left arm seamer Tsotsobe was banned from cricket for eight years after
pleading guilty to the charge of contriving to fix a match in the 2015 Ram Slam T20 series.
As a Protea, though, Tsotsobe claimed 121 wickets in national colours and was really stingy in the T20 version of the game, only conceding 6.93 runs per over in this format - the most economical of all South African fast bowlers who played in more than 20 games.
THREAT: Tsotsobe
48 Temba Bavuma (40 Tests, 6 ODIs, 5 T20Is)
IT WAS either Bavuma or Aiden Markram for this spot.
Langa-born Bavuma cracked the nod in the end with a superior average across all three formats, albeit by only 0.36 and also scored more overall runs (2 379) than Markram (2 085).
At 30, we get the feeling that this little dynamite is yet to explode and that Proteas fans are going to see the best of Bavuma soon.
We are convinced that he will add more Test centuries to that heroic 102* against England at Newlands in 2016.
47 Alviro Petersen
(36 Tests, 21 ODIs,
2 T20Is)
A FIVE-DAY specialist, Petersen showed no love to India on
Valentine’s Day in 2010 when he scored exactly 100 runs in his first Test innings.
A patient opening batsman, Petersen partnered legendary skipper Graeme Smith in 52 innings from 2010-2014, with the pair sharing a 42-run average for the first wicket.
Petersen also famously scored 182 runs - his highest score - at Lord’s in 2012 and amassed a total of 2 093 runs at an average of 34.88 in Tests.
46 Justin Kemp
(4 Tests, 85 ODIs,
8 T20Is)
AFTER making his ODI debut in 2001, the ex-Cobras allrounder gradually became a player that could win matches on his own and did so on more than one occasion with bat in hand.
Often a hero when you needed one, in 2006 Kemp scored an unbeaten 100 against India at Newlands, batting at No.7 and coming in with SA on 71/5 - they then won the match by 106 runs.
The big-hitting Kemp scored 752 of his 1 512 ODI runs with boundaries and batting low down the order, while also taking 32 important wickets.
While he only played eight T20Is, Kemp has the highest batting
average (50.75) of all South Africans in this format.
BEST AHEAD: Temba Bavuma
45 Andrew
Hudson (35 Tests, 89 ODIs)
SOUTH Africa’s first ever Man of the Match in a Test post isolation, opening batsman Hudson braved the bowling of West Indies speedsters Curtly Ambrose, Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh and Winston Benjamin for 519 minutes to score 163 off 384 balls in Bridgetown.
That innings proved how mentally tough Hudders was and while not the best opener stats-wise, he was rock solid and an elegant strokemaker.
44 Paul Harris (37 Tests, 3 ODIs)
ONLY 13 South African bowlers have taken more than 100 Test wickets and Harris is 12th with 103 scalps.
A tall spin bowler, Harris bowled an average of 23 overs per innings in Test matches and tied up one end with an economy rate of 2.65 to frustrate batsmen and get his strike bowlers in the game at the other end.
Harro was at his best when playing at Newlands and took an unforgettable 6/127 - his best figures in an innings - against Australia in 2009.
43 Craig Matthews (18 Tests, 56 ODIs)
THIS man had one of the longest run-ups in the game of cricket over the last 28 years.
Matthews was the embodiment of composure and did everything so gracefully.
A decent batsman lower down the order - he once scored 62* in a Test against England in Leeds - Matthews was a wicket-to-wicket fast bowler that hardly gave batsmen any room to manoeuvre.
The Western Province stalwart took his 131 Proteas wickets at an incredible economy rate of 2.98 (2.26 in Tests and 3.94 in ODIs).
42 Pat Symcox (20 Tests,
80 ODIs)
SYMMO will go down as one of the most lovable characters in recent SA cricket history.
A tall player, whenever Symcox asked for guard and South Africa were in trouble, you always still had that glimmer of hope.
He simply never shied away from a challenge or stood down from a confrontation.
But it’s as an offspin bowler that Symcox made his name and claimed 109 scalps in SA colours, remarkably only conceding 4.15 runs per over in his 80 ODI games.
FIERY FIGHTER: Pat Symcox
41 Charl
Langeveldt
(6 Tests,
72 ODIs,
9 T20Is)
THE king of swing in South Africa, there is a reason why Langes is now the bowling coach of the national team.
This man knew how to manipulate the ball through the air and also off the pitch.
A former prison warder from Paarl, Langeveldt always played with a smile on his face and is arguably also the best swing
bowler this country has produced in the last three decades.
He was seen as a white-ball
bowler and only played in six Tests.
He took exactly 100 wickets in ODIs and in 2005 against the Windies in Barbados, also became the first Protea to take a hattrick.