When a team dominates a phase over a sustained period of time, it is natural for fans to pit them against the greatest units of all time. Since ODIs began in 1971, the West Indians of the 1980s and the Australians of the 2000s are obvious reference points.

Not as commonly discussed are the great South African side of the second half of the 1990s, the decade when ODI cricket really took off. Australia’s Test series win in the West Indies in 1994/95 marked the unofficial transfer of supremacy, but that was in Test cricket. In ODIs, South Africa were leaving everyone far behind.

Between October 1995, months after South Africa’s iconic rugby World Cup triumph at home, and February 2000, just before the match-fixing scandal unfolded, their cricket team won 84 ODIs and lost 23. A comparison with the other contemporary sides may make it clear why this is an astonishing record.

During this period, South Africa won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy, in 1998. It is ironic, how a team often branded as “chokers” for their poor knockout record won the first ever ICC tournament played solely in knockout format. That year, they also won the gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games – but the matches did not get ODI status.

In all knockout matches over this period, South Africa won 11 and lost only four. Their win-loss ratio of 2.75 was some distance better than the 2 of Australia or the 1.714 of Sri Lanka, the two world champions during this phase. There was little evidence of them stumbling at the knockout stage either, but memories tend to be selective.

South Africa won all five league matches in the 1996 World Cup before dropping Allan Donald for the quarter-final and paying the price. In 1999, they beat everyone (except Zimbabwe), and were a match away from knocking Australia out of the World Cup. But Herschelle Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh. In the next match, Donald forgot to run. And that was that.

Across the two World Cups, South Africa won 11 games and lost three – yet again, the best record among all teams. That, however, was not enough to shrug off the c-word that got attached to them sometime around this period.

But we are digressing. While there is little doubt over the South African dominance, it is important to understand what made them great.

A few things first

South Africa had been going through their first peak in Test cricket when they were ostracised by the rest of the world. That bit is common knowledge.

What is not as well-known is the cricket they played behind those apartheid-laden doors. Seven “rebel teams” toured South Africa in the 1980s. Against them, South Africa won 27 and lost nine unofficial “ODIs” – a win-loss ratio of 3.

In fact, they started playing limited-overs cricket well before their ban. When Australia toured South Africa in 1966/67, one of their matches was a 50-over game against a full-strength South African XI. Demonstrating a brand of cricket well ahead of the times, Graeme Pollock hit 132 not out to help the hosts chase 324 with ease. It could well have been the first ever ODI.

The South African Gillette Cup began in the southern summer of 1969/70. In List A cricket, the competition can be considered the pioneer of the powerplay (and field restrictions). When Kerry Packer made floodlit cricket popular, South Africa took to it quicker than most Test-playing nations outside Australia. Not only were they playing limited-overs cricket in the 1980s but they were a decade ahead of their counterparts.

South Africa returned to the fold in end-1991. Until the end of 1992, they won 11 ODIs and lost 11. In day-night ODIs, however, their record read 7-4.

But mastering this fad was not all South Africa brought to the fold. They had always been a nation of great all-rounders. “If you get out for a duck, you don’t spend your time standing at third man. You can pick up five wickets and it is great again. This appealed to me. I guess it appealed to all those guys,” Clive Rice once told.

Rice himself played ODIs only in the twilight of his illustrious career, but Adrian Kuiper and Brian McMillan were around. Hansie Cronje – it is often forgotten that he had more ODI wickets than Fanie de Villiers and Andre Nel (and had a habit of troubling Sachin Tendulkar) – arrived soon afterwards.

And around the halfway-point of the decade, they found three all-rounders, all of whom can be ranked among the greatest in the history of ODIs.

Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, and Lance Klusener – South Africa’s ODI caps 38, 39, and 40 – who debuted in the space of ten days.

The best-rounded side

It must not be forgotten that the trio arrived when Cronje was already at the helm of the side, transforming them into a unit of world-beaters in unison with Bob Woolmer. McMillan was still around. These two reasonable all-rounders were backed by some batters who could roll their arm over and bowlers who could bat. But the trio took things to a different level.

From 171 ODIs, Klusener averaged 41.10 with the bat and 29.95 with the ball. It is important to understand how remarkable these numbers are.

In all men’s ODIs until March 20, 2025, no one else with the 1,000 run-100 wicket double averaged more than 40 with the bat and below 30 with the ball. Klusener’s aggregates (3,576 runs, 192 wickets) were significantly more than both cutoff marks. He also struck at 90 and went for 4.70 an over.

Klusener was an ODI beast whose entire career seldom gets acknowledged. Had he played for another team, these numbers would have screamed to be noticed more. They do not, because they were drowned by the across-format volume and longevity of the behemoths, Kallis and Pollock.

How good was the trio? Fourteen all-rounders had 1,000 runs and 50 wickets over the period in question. Of them, these three had the best ratio between batting and bowling averages (the difference is often loaded in the favour of the batting all-rounder). Cronje was at fifth place.

It is not about the two averages alone. As parameters, these two can be misleading – for they do not take into account balls (bowled or faced), the other resource in limited-overs cricket.

Of the four South Africans, however, Klusener (third), Cronje (sixth), and Pollock (seventh) all featured in the top half in terms of strike rate, while Pollock (first), Cronje (fifth), Kallis (sixth), and Klusener (ninth) were all in the top nine in economy.

India’s recent limited-overs surge can be often attributed to the co-existence of Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja. They allow India eight batters and six bowlers. There have been other comparable units as well. Wasim, Afridi, and Abdul Razzaq. Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, and Chris Woakes.

South Africa had nine batters and seven bowlers. Not only that, they had four of the five best all-rounders of the era including the best three. Lower the cut-offs to 500 runs and 25 wickets, and McMillan (ratio 0.77) and Pat Symcox (0.52) make it. Thus, they had the backups too.

South Africa’s golden generation had a cheat code men’s ODI cricket has never known. If only there was a World Cup in that trophy cabinet.