Reasons not to miss 2012-13 PSL season

1. Can Orlando Pirates win yet another treble?
The past 2 seasons they have dominated South African football by winning 6 major Cups. The only key player that has left is striker Tokelo Rantie. They have added Zambian striker Collins Mbesuma to their ammunition. Augusto Palacios is already under pressure from fans.

2. Battle for top goalscorer award
Last season Siyabonga Nomvethe took this award with his 20 goals. Can he do it again? The likes of Benni McCarthy, Edward Manqele and Majoro will be challenging for this award.

Edward Manqele is the new striker at Sundowns

3. Q-Innovation
It will be interesting to see which teams win the 4 Quarters. Will it be the same team winning them? Can one of the smaller less fancied teams turn the tables and win one of the Quarters?

4. Stuart Baxter new Chiefs
Following a horrible season last season where they failed to win any silverware, can Stuart Baxter bring back some pride to the team? How will the new signings (Nkhatha, Nkosi) perform?

Jessica Motaung trying to bring back the glory days

5. Moroka Swallows - Life after Gordon Igesund
They have never won the league before and last season they came within 2 points of being crowned as league champions. How will they survive without the man who took them that close?

6. PSL newcomers - Will they sink or swim?
We have been waiting for a very long-time to see Pretoria University playing in the PSL. Finally they have arrived. Can they live up to the expectations or will they be fighting relegation? Chippa United are also in unfamiliar territory. Survival will be the goal for these 2 newcomers.

Proteas : Undisputed Number 1!

On Monday we witnessed South Africa jump ahead of England in the rankings after their 51-run win at the home of cricket Lord's.

What makes this achievement so sweet is that the Proteas had to work so hard for it. England fought from the 1st Day of the 1st Test till the last wicket was taken on the last day of the Test series. The media gave this team no chance before the series. They said the Proteas had not played enough cricket before this Test series. Beating England at home 2-0 in a Test series is an incredible feat.  The win ended England's impressive streak of seven consecutive Test series wins at home and extended the Proteas' run of six years without defeat in Test series overseas.

For the 1st time in a long time all the pieces of the puzzle came together for this talented team. South Africa has always produced wonderful Test cricketers but they just could not dominate the world of Test cricket.

Great Coach
Gary Kirsten has been planning for this series from the moment he signed his contract as national coach and his preparation should not go unappreciated, despite his greatest efforts to avoid the limelight. He got the team mentally ready for battle by taking the team to Switzerland for a team building session with adventurer and motivational speaker Mike Horn. This is the one area that the Proteas have struggled with in the past. When times got tough in this series our players did not buckle under pressure.

Great Team
The formula for success is a simple one for the Proteas. It is based on a very strong batting line-up with seven specialist batsmen which has been made possible by AB de Villiers keeping. Our top 4 got BIG 100s. This balances up the test team perfectly.
On top of that South Africa have the best pace attack by far in world cricket at the moment. Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander have been just awesome. Jacques Kallis has also chipped in with the odd crucial wicket. Imran Tahir, although not quite the best spinner around, gives variation to the attack. The South African fielding unit is rock-solid as well. There is no chink in the South African armour. They held onto their catches when it mattered most. England dropped 8!


Hashim Amla: Man of the Series

Next Challenge
The toughest challenge now will be staying as the number 1 Test team. Everyone will lift their game against us. The next challenge for this Proteas Test squad is a trip to Australia who are ranked 3rd in the ICC Test Rankings. Becoming number 1 was tough, staying number will be even tougher.

The team went on a lap of honour around Lord's

Shaun Pollock finally got a chance to ring the bell at Lord's

Great Captain: Most capped captain ever!