Gauteng (formerly Transvaal) is the
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
team of the southern parts of
Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The team was called ''Transvaal'' from April 1890 to April 1997 (the area north of Johannesburg, including
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
being part of the
Northerns, formerly ''Northern Transvaal''). Under the main competition's various names – the Currie Cup, then the Castle Cup, now the
SuperSport Series – Transvaal/Gauteng cricket team has been the most successful of the South African domestic sides, winning 25 times. The club's most glorious period was the 1980s when they were dubbed the "Mean Machine".
For the purposes of the
SuperSport Series, Gauteng merged with
North West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
(formerly
Western Transvaal
The Province of the Transvaal ( af, Provinsie van Transvaal), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Trans ...
) to form the
Highveld Lions
DP World Lions is a professional cricket team in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The home venue is the DP World Wanderers Stadium.
The team plays in the CSA 4-Day Series first class cricket competition as well as in the Momentum 1 Day Cup, CSA Pro ...
or, more simply, "the Lions". (from October 2004 to 2021).
Honours
* Currie Cup (25) - 1889–90, 1894–95, 1902–03, 1903–04, 1904–05, 1906–07, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1929–30, 1934–35, 1950–51, 1958–59, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1999–00; shared (4) - 1921–22, 1937–38, 1965–66, 1969–70
* Standard Bank Cup (6) - 1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85, 1992–93, 1997–98, 2003–04
* South African Airways Provincial Three-Day Challenge (2) - 2006–07, 2012-13; 'shared (1) – 2014-15
* South African Airways Provincial One-Day Challenge (1) - 2007–08
* Gillette/Nissan Cup (9) - 1973–74, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1990–91
Squad
In April 2021,
Cricket South Africa
Cricket South Africa (CSA) is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South Afr ...
confirmed the following squad ahead of the 2021–22 season.
*
Bjorn Fortuin
Imaad Fortuin (born Bjorn Fortuin; 21 October 1994) is a South African professional cricketer. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team in September 2019.
Domestic career
He was included in the North West cricket team sq ...
*
Wiaan Mulder
Pieter Willem Adriaan Mulder (born 19 February 1998), known as Wiaan Mulder, is a South African first-class cricketer. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut for South Africa in October 2017 and his Test debut in March 2019. In domestic ...
*
Lutho Sipamla
Lutho Sipamla (born 12 May 1998) is a South African professional cricketer who plays domestic cricket for Gauteng. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team in February 2019.
Domestic career
He made his first-class debu ...
*
Kagiso Rapulana
Kagiso Rapulana (born 6 July 1991) is a South African cricketer. He was included in the North West squad for the 2016 Africa T20 Cup. In November 2017, he scored 259 not out batting for North West against Northern Cape in the 2017–18 Sunfoi ...
*
Ryan Rickelton
Ryan David Rickelton (born 11 July 1996) is a South African cricketer. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team on 31 March 2022. A left handed wicket-keeper batter, Rickelton represents Gauteng domestically.
Domestic ...
*
Joshua Richards
*
Sisanda Magala
Sisanda Somila Bruce Magala (born 7 January 1991) is a South African professional cricketer. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team in April 2021.
Domestic career
Magala was included in the Eastern Province cricket te ...
*
Dominic Hendricks
Dominic Andrew Hendricks (born 7 November 1990) is a South African cricketer who played for Gauteng. A left-handed batsman, Hendricks has also represented South Africa U19.
Hendricks made his List A debut for Gauteng on his 19th birthday, maki ...
*
Tladi Bokako
Tladi Bokako (born 21 April 1993) is a South African cricketer. He was included in the Eastern Province cricket team squad for the 2015 Africa T20 Cup. In June 2018, he was named in the squad for the Cape Cobras team for the 2018–19 season.
I ...
*
Malusi Siboto
Malusi Siboto (born 20 August 1987) is a South African cricketer. He was included in the Free State cricket team squad for the 2015 Africa T20 Cup. In August 2017, he was named in the Cape Town Knight Riders' squad for the first season of the T2 ...
*
Duanne Olivier
Duanne Olivier (born 9 May 1992) is a South African cricketer who plays for the South Africa cricket team and for the Knights cricket team in domestic fixtures. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler.
In February 2019, Olivier signed a Kolpak de ...
*
Ruan Haasbroek
Ruan Haasbroek (born 18 April 1997) is a South African cricketer. He made his List A debut for North West in the 2016–17 CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge on 18 December 2016. He made his Twenty20 debut for North West in the 2017 Africa T20 C ...
*
Tshepo Ntuli
Tshepo Ntuli (born 15 November 1995) is a South African first-class cricketer. He was included in the Free State squad for the 2016 Africa T20 Cup. In April 2021, Ntuli was named in the South Africa Emerging Men's squad for their six-match tou ...
*
Mitchell van Buuren
*
Codi Yusuf
Codi Yusuf (born 10 April 1998) is a South African cricketer. He made his Twenty20 debut for Mpumalanga in the 2018 Africa T20 Cup on 14 September 2018. In September 2019, he was named in Gauteng's squad for the 2019–20 CSA Provincial T20 Cu ...
*
Levert Manje
Levert Manje (born 28 June 2001) is a South African cricketer. He made his first-class debut on 13 February 2020, for Gauteng in the 2019–20 CSA 3-Day Provincial Cup. Prior to his first-class debut, he was named in South Africa's squad for th ...
*
Kagiso Rabada
Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his ...
*
Rassie van der Dussen
Hendrik Erasmus "Rassie" van der Dussen (born 7 February 1989) is a South African professional cricketer who represents the South Africa national cricket team and plays for Gauteng in domestic cricket. In the 2018 ''South African Cricket Annua ...
*
Temba Bavuma
Temba Bavuma (born 17 May 1990) is a South African international cricketer who currently is the captain of the South African cricket team in white-ball cricket. He also vice-captains South Africa in Test cricket. He is a right-handed batter a ...
*
Reeza Hendricks
Reeza Raphael Hendricks (born 14 August 1989) is a South African cricketer who plays for Gauteng (cricket team), Gauteng and for the South Africa national cricket team. He is a right-handed opening batsman. He made his international debut for So ...
Former players
Among the notable players are:
Clive Rice
Clive Edward Butler Rice (23 July 1949 – 28 July 2015) was a South African international cricketer. An all-rounder, Rice ended his First Class cricket career with a batting average of 40.95 and a bowling average of 22.49. He captained Nott ...
,
Jimmy Cook
Stephen James Cook (born 31 July 1953) is a former South African association football and cricketer who played in three cricket Test matches and four One Day Internationals from 1991 to 1993. His son Stephen Cook currently plays for Gauteng an ...
,
Sylvester Clarke,
Graeme Pollock
Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as ...
,
Alvin Kallicharran,
Roy Pienaar
Roy Francois Pienaar (born 17 July 1961) is a South African former first-class cricketer. He played for Transvaal, Western Province and Northern Transvaal/Northerns in domestic cricket and spent the period between 1987 and 1989 in England pla ...
,
Hugh Page
Hugh Ashton Page (born 3 July 1962) is a former South African first class cricketer who was born in Rhodesia. He played his cricket with Transvaal and spent the 1987 English season with Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. ...
,
Richard Snell,
Henry Fotheringham,
Ray Jennings
Raymond Vernon Jennings (born 9 August 1954) is a former South African cricketer. He was one of South Africa's leading wicket-keepers during the suspension of the South African national team from international cricket during the apartheid era. ...
and
Rohan Kanhai.
Venues
Venues have included:
*
Old Wanderers
Old Wanderers was a cricket ground in Johannesburg, South Africa. The ground hosted 22 Test matches from 1895 to 1939, before being rebuilt as Johannesburg's Park Station in 1946. It has since been replaced by the New Wanderers Stadium.
Histo ...
,
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
(1891–1946)
*
Berea Park,
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
(occasional venue Dec 1906 - Jan 1932; Northerns venue from 1937)
* Willowmoore Park, Benoni (occasional venue Dec 1923 - Dec 1931; Northerns venue from 1948)
*
Ellis Park, Johannesburg (1946–1956)
*
New Wanderers Stadium
The Wanderers Stadium (Imperial Wanderers due to sponsorship reasons and affectionately known as the Bullring due to its intimidating atmosphere) is a stadium situated just south of Sandton in Illovo, Johannesburg in Gauteng Province, South ...
, Johannesburg (1956–present)
* Vereeniging Brick and Tile Recreation Ground (one game in 1966)
* New Wanderers No 1 Oval, Johannesburg (occasional venue Nov 1968 - Dec 1991)
* Strathvaal Cricket Club A Ground, Stilfontein (occasional venue Dec 1963 - March 1976)
* South African Defence Force Ground, Potchefstroom (one game in Dec 1972)
* Lenasia Stadium, Johannesburg (occasional venue Jan 1977 - Nov 2002)
* George Lea Sports Club, Johannesburg (two games in 1983)
* Dick Fourie Stadium, Vereeniging (two matches 1989 - 1991)
* NF Oppenheimer Ground, Randjesfontein (three matches 1995 - 2004)
References
Sources
* ''South African Cricket Annual'' – various editions
* ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' – various editions
* "Cricinfo"
{{South African cricket season
South African first-class cricket teams
Highveld Lions
Cricket teams in Gauteng