Tour of England 1994                   Captain: Kepler Wessels

18th official Test tour

Eleventh Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

 (June - September 1994)

Making their first tour of England for 29 years, the 'Proteas' manager Fritz Bing said on arrival how they were returned to "the Mother Country not as rebels, beggars, or enemies, but as confident, happy children...we come proudly through the front door".

When Kepler Wessels scored his century on the first day at Lord’s Mike Procter excitedly waved the South African flag from the pavilion balcony. MCC turned a blind eye until later in the match when regulations prohibiting banners and flags inside the ground were enforced.

South Africa achieved an overwhelming victory by a record margin of 356 runs at Lord’s but failed to go on and take the series.  The batting collapsed at The Oval against the pace of Devon Malcolm, and then lost the one-day series. However, more importantly, the image of the new South Africa they conveyed won plaudits. Allan Donald proved himself a great fast bowler, Jonty Rhodes an exuberant fielder and Cullinan a classic batsman. If much of the batting was plodding and the bowling attack was of modest fast-medium, it was resilient and saved the match at Leeds.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

Next tour

New Zealand 1994-95

Next tour of England

1998

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Openers Gary Kirsten, Andrew Hudson, Gerhardus Liebenberg

Batsmen  Hansie Cronje, Peter Kirsten, Daryll Cullinan, Jonty Rhodes, Kepler Wessels.

Wicket-keeper  Dave Richardson

Spin bowlers  Tim Shaw, Pat Symcox

Fast bowlers  Allan Donald, Fanie de Villiers, Brian McMillan, Craig Matthews,

Aubrey Martyn, Richard Snell (r)

Representation of teams:    

Br - Border (1)

EP Eastern Province (2)

N - Natal (3)

NT Northern Transvaal (1)

OFS - Orange Free State (3)

T - Transvaal (1)

WP - Western Province (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(21 July 1994) :

       29 yrs  9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Wessels 37 (24 + 13),  Donald 14,  Hudson 14,  Richardson 14,  Cronje 13,  Rhodes 13,  McMillan 10,  P Kirsten 9,  Matthews 8,  Cullinan 7,  de Villiers 6,  G Kirsten 6,  Symcox 5,  Snell 4,  Liebenburg 0,  Martyn 0,  Shaw 0.

Team Officials

Bing was president of the Western Province Cricket Union.

Selectors

Peter Pollock (convenor of selectors), …..

Selection

Unavailable: 

Tour Party Announced : 18 April 1994, announced in Johannesburg

Not selected: S J Cook,  B Schultz.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa      60 days

(18 April to 17 June)

Travel

A three-day training camp at Durban finished on Sunday 12 June 1994.

The tourists flew out of Johannesburg on Friday night, and arrived in London on Saturday 18 June

The team had their first practice session at The Oval later that day and two days later played an extra practice match at Wormsley, and started their official programme on 23 June.

Time spent in England

   x days

(18 June - depart Host)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

Richard Snell was called up in place of Aubrey Martyn who returned home because of stress fractures of the back without playing a match. Martyn strained his lower back during the training camp held in Durban.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in England before First Test: 

33 days

(18 June - 21 July 1994)

Test appearances on tour

3 -  Cronje,  de Villiers,  Donald,  G Kirsten,  P Kirsten,  McMillan,  Rhodes,  Richardson,  Wessels

2 -  Hudson.

1 -  Cullinan.

0 -  Liebenburg,  Martyn,  Shaw,  Snell,  Symcox.

Highlights

•   Allan Donald took 5 wickets in his first innings at Lord’s getting his name on the dressing room board

•   Kepler Wessels achieved the same feat by scoring a century at Lord’s (105).

•   Peter Kirsten hit 104 at Headingley

•   Brian McMillan (93) batted through nearly 200 runs to take South Africa to a respectable score at The Oval

•   Darryl Cullinan played in only the last Test but with 94 showed what might have been

Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

The tourists flew to Holland to play their last match on 4 September without captain Kepler Wessels, Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes.

Time away from South Africa    x days  

(17 June  to September)

Finances

Published accounts of the tour