Greatest South African cricket team in 40 years

1) Graeme Smith

2) Herschelle Gibbs

3) Hashim Amla

4) Jacques Kallis

5) AB de Villiers

6) Jonty Rhodes

7) Brian Mcmillan

8) Mark Boucher

9) Dale Steyn

10) Kagiso Rabada

11) Allan Donald

Twelfth Man - Shaun Pollock

Tests or ODIs?

AC/DC

Not sure how and why I've left out Vernon Philander......geeez it hurts.

Jonty definitely wouldn't make my test team.

He averaged 35 and scored 3 hundreds!

I'd swap him out for Faf.

Conversely, I'd never pick Big Mac or Boucher in the 1 days team.

I'd take Klusener and QdK.

Its hard to do an AC/DC in cricket.

Interesting...and I agree...give me your ODI team, mine will include Vernon.

ODI's are easier to pick...

Bear in mind that cricket has changed a lot in the past 2 decades... so im picking players who were gun players in their generation.

Herschelle Gibbs - Got us off to many incredible starts. Also churned out hundreds.

1. Matches: 248
2. Runs: 8,094
3. Batting Average: 36.13
4. Strike Rate: 83.26

Quinton de Kock - A modern day master in ODI's. Would walk in to any team of his generation.

1. Matches: 140
2. Runs: 6,156
3. Batting Average: 45.38
4. Strike Rate: 95.47

Hashim Amla - Mr reliable, also scored at a really good strike rate. Broke many ODI records.

1. Matches: 181
2. Runs: 8,113
3. Batting Average: 49.46
4. Strike Rate: 88.39

Jacques Kallis - No need to give reason. An all time, all round legend in all formats that he played.

1. Matches: 328
2. Runs: 11,579
3. Batting Average: 44.36
4. Strike Rate: 72.89
5. Wickets: 273
6. Economy Rate: 4.84

AB de Villiers - Mr 360 could not be contained. 228 matches with a strike rate of over 100 says it all

1. Matches: 228
2. Runs: 9,577
3. Batting Average: 53.50
4. Strike Rate: 101.09

Jonty Rhodes - Fielding masterclass and was able to close off tight finishes.

1. Matches: 245
2. Runs: 5,935
3. Batting Average: 35.11
4. Strike Rate: 80.91

Lance Klusener - Literally my favourite ODI cricketer. He could pull us out of hell with his own bare hands if we needed him to!

1. Matches: 171
2. Runs: 3,576
3. Batting Average: 41.10
4. Strike Rate: 89.91
5. Wickets: 192
6. Economy Rate: 4.70

Shaun Pollock - Economy rate of below 4 and a batting average of 26. What a player!

1. Matches: 303
2. Runs: 3,519
3. Batting Average: 26.45
4. Strike Rate: 86.69
5. Wickets: 393
6. Economy Rate: 3.67

Nicky Boje - Similar bowling stats to Kesh, but offered a lot more with the bat. Highly underrated.

1. Matches: 115
2. Runs: 1,041
3. Batting Average: 26.69
4. Strike Rate: 74.60
5. Wickets: 96
6. Economy Rate: 4.57

Fanie de Villiers - Could clean up an innings and concede very few runs with an economy rate of 3.37

1. Wickets: 95
2. Economy Rate:3.37

Allan Donald - White Lighting... also very economical and took plenty of wickets at the start of an innings. Sachin's number 1 choice!

1. Wickets: 272
2. Economy Rate: 4.15

Drinks carriers:

Kagiso Rabada

Temba Bavuma

Yep...Quinton and Klusener are a tick. Not sure about Boje I don't think he's a great so I'd sub him with Philander and sure Vinnige Fanie and Shaun Pollock were greats but Dale Steyn was something special, he could swing the ball both ways at speeds of 140kms+ so I'd swop Fanie de Villiers.

Now just before you say the team is unbalanced without a spinner I remind you that the Windies dominated cricket with pace and never lost a series over 15 years wherever they played.

Bavuma in the mix with the greats? You can't be serious.

Good post. Apologies for a late response.