Sandton
Sandton is an affluent area situated in the Johannesburg Municipality, South Africa. The name comes from the combination of two of its suburbs and Bryanston. In 1969 Sandton was promulgated as a municipality in its own right, but lost its status as an independent town after the re-organisation of South African local governments. Archaeological findings suggest the area, which Sandton comprises today, had been occupied by various indigenous groups, before European settlement, most notably the Tswana and, to a lesser extent, Sotho people; the remains of an Iron Age smelter was discovered in a suburb of northern Sandton. One of the first Voortrekker parties to settle in the area were the Esterhuysen family on the farm Zandfontein. A monument to commemorate them may be found just off Adrienne Street in Sandown where the family cemetery is located. Zandfontein and Rietfontein encumbered what was to become Sandton; the municipal coat of arms of Sandton pays homage to the three farms with three round fountain barrels on its chevron.
In the late 19th-century the Wilhelmi family of Hannover, Germany acquired the farm Driefontein No. 3 while Rietfontein was owned by the Ehler family. The original Driefontein homestead, now within the confines of the Field & Study Centre, was looted during the Anglo-Boer War; the ruins are visible on the northern bank of the Klein Jukskei River. The Wilhemi family, upon return from Germany built the'new' 1906 Driefontein Farmhouse on what is present-day Fifteenth Street, Parkmore cum Riverclub; the farmhouse served as the icon and headquarters for the now defunct Sandton Historical Foundation and is listed as a City of Johannesburg Owned Heritage Site. Sandton was established as a separate municipality in 1969 by the office of the Administrator of the Transvaal, it had not formed part of Johannesburg but was managed, in part by the'parent city' and Pretoria through the North Eastern Peri-Urban Land administration. It was much a residential area consisting of small holdings with a rural "horsey" lifestyle attracting many of the upper-middle classes and Johannesburg elites.
It was subsequently dubbed the "manure" belt. The Rivonia Trial derives its name from the locality of Liliesleaf Farm within the Sandton suburb where many of the Black freedom fighters such as Nelson Mandela were captured by the South African state and subsequently tried for treason. Rivonia had been known as Edenburg and was changed to make itself distinct from Edenburg, Free State, it was named for the surname Riven. Sandton and its constituencies were traditionally more liberal than surrounds. For example, the motion which never materialised by residents in favour for the inclusion of Alexandra, Gauteng a demarcated black township in terms of the Group Areas Act, into Sandton's jurisdiction proved troublesome for the National Party government which had a strong constituency in the adjacent town of Randburg; the construction of Sandton City by Rapp & Maister marked a significant change for the Sandton area. It created rapid industrialisation. Sandton came to symbolise the White Flight movement of Johannesburg and secured itself as Johannesburg's second Central Business District.
After the demise of Apartheid, Sandton formed part of the interim Eastern Metropolitan Substructure, in 1996 came to be included, along with the former towns of Randburg and Roodepoort, as part of the newly demarcated City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality thus losing its separate municipal government and town status. Despite this, Sandton is still unofficially earmarked as a distinct region of the city and operates as a macro-suburb. Urban decay in downtown Johannesburg caused many corporate offices to move from the Johannesburg Central Business District to Sandton in the 1990s, it has become the new financial district of Johannesburg's premier business centre. Much of the financial focus of Johannesburg has shifted from the Central Business District to Sandton. However, three of South Africa's four-largest banks have kept their head offices in downtown Johannesburg, along with Transnet, the transport parastatal; the other bank, has its headquarters in Sandton. A considerable amount of the city's A-grade office space is to be found in Sandton.
The JSE Securities Exchange, Johannesburg's stock exchange, relocated its offices to Sandton from the central business district in the late-1990s. Sandton's gain was the central business district's loss: it resulted from urban blight of the downtown Johannesburg area. Sandton is home to the Sandton Convention Centre, one of the largest convention centres on the continent and primary site of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which Johannesburg hosted; the convention centre hosted the African National Congress' victory celebrations after the party was re-elected at the 2004 election. Massmart has its head office in the Massmart House in Sandton. Ster-Kinekor has its head office in the Ster-Kinekor Office Park in Sandton. IBM's and Hewlett Packard's main Southern Africa and South Africa offices are in Sandhurst and Rivonia respectively. In 2013, petrochemical giant Sasol announced the development of their new headquarters in Wierda Valley, Sandton; the Sandton Central commercial node, centred on the suburbs of Sandown and Sandhurst has some of the best and most expensive commercial properties and offices in South Africa.
A number of new developments are underway including 6 Benmore (C
Gauteng
Gauteng, which means "place of gold", is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated in the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, accounting for only 1.5% of the land area. It is urbanised, containing the country's largest city, its administrative capital and other large areas such as Midrand and Vanderbijlpark; as of 2018, Gauteng is the most populous province in South Africa with a population of 14,700,000 people according to estimates. The name Gauteng is derived from gauta meaning "gold" with the locative suffix - eng. "Gauta" itself is derived from the Dutch word for gold, goud. There was a thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. In Sesotho, the name Gauteng was used for Johannesburg and surrounding areas long before it was adopted in 1994 as the official name of a province. Gauteng was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first multiracial elections on 27 April 1994, it was named Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging and was renamed "Gauteng" in December 1994..
The term "PWV", describing the region existed long before the establishment of the province. The history of the area, now Gauteng can be traced back to the early 1800s when settlers originating from the Cape Colony defeated chief Mzilikazi and started establishing villages in the area; the city of Pretoria was founded in 1855 as capital of the South African Republic. After the discovery of gold in 1886, the region proceeded to become the single largest gold producer in the world and the city of Johannesburg was founded; the older city Pretoria was not subject to development. Pretoria grew at a slower rate and was regarded due to its role in the Second Boer War; the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond mined was mined near Pretoria in a nearby town called Cullinan in the year 1905. Gauteng has only been properly documented since the 1800s and as a result, not much information regarding its history predating the 1800s is available. At the Sterkfontein caves, some of the oldest fossils of hominids have been discovered, such as Mrs. Ples and Little Foot.
Many crucial events happened in present-day Gauteng with regards to the anti-apartheid struggle, such as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, the Rivonia Trial in 1963 and 1964 and the Soweto Uprising of 1976. Today, the Apartheid Museum stands testament to these struggles in Johannesburg. Gauteng is governed by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, a 73-person unicameral legislature elected by party-list proportional representation; the legislature elects one of its members as Premier of Gauteng to lead the executive, the Premier appoints an Executive Council of up to 10 members of the legislature to serve as heads of the various government departments. The provincial government is responsible for the topics allocated to it in the national constitution, including such fields as basic education, housing, social services and environmental protection; the most recent election of the provincial legislature was held on 7 May 2014, the African National Congress won 53.59% of the vote and a 40-seat majority in the legislature.
The official opposition is the Democratic Alliance, which won 30.78 % of 23 seats. Other parties represented are the Economic Freedom Fighters with eight seats and the Freedom Front Plus and the Inkatha Freedom Party with one seat each. Premier David Makhura of the ANC was elected on 21 May 2014, at the first meeting of the legislature after the general election; the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa, which has seats in Pretoria and Johannesburg, is a superior court with general jurisdiction over the province. Johannesburg is home to the Constitutional Court, South Africa's highest court, to a branch of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court. Gauteng's southern border is the Vaal River, it borders on North West to the west, Limpopo to the north, Mpumalanga to the east. Gauteng is the only landlocked province of South Africa without a foreign border. Most of Gauteng is on a high-altitude grassland. Between Johannesburg and Pretoria there are low parallel ridges and undulating hills, some part of the Magaliesberg Mountains and the Witwatersrand.
The north of the province is more subtropical, due to its lower altitude and is dry savanna habitat. In the southern half of Gauteng the Witwatersrand area is an old term describing a 120km wide oblong-shaped conurbation from Randfontein in the West to Nigel, Gauteng in the East; this area is often referred to as "Witwatersrand", "the Rand" or "the Reef". It has traditionally been divided into the three areas of Central Rand and West Rand; the climate is influenced by altitude. Though the province is at a subtropical latitude, the climate is comparatively cooler in Johannesburg, at 1,700 m above sea level. Most precipitation occurs as brief afternoon thunderstorms. Winters are crisp and dry with frost occurring in the southern areas. Snow is rare; the Gauteng Province is divided into three metropolitan municipalities and two district municipalities. The district municipalities are
AB de Villiers
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers known as AB de Villiers, is a former South African cricketer who played for the South African national team. He is regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time, he holds many batting records, including the world's fastest One-Day International 50, 100 and 150, the fastest Test century by a South African and the fastest Twenty20 International 50 by a South African batsman. He plays for Titans in South African domestic cricket and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, he is known as "Mr. 360°" due to his ability of playing shots in all parts of the field. He began his international career as a wicket-keeper/batsman, but he has played most solely as a batsman, he could bat at various positions in the batting order but predominantly in the middle-order. Noted as one of the most innovative batsmen in the modern game, de Villiers is noted for many unorthodox shots behind the wicket-keeper and slips, he made his international debut in a Test match against England from 2004 and first played an ODI in early 2005.
His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. As of 2016, he has passed 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and has a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game, he is the only batsman in ODI cricket to have completed a trio of 5000+ runs, 50+ average and 100+ strike rate in his career. As of May 2018, from the date of his international debut onwards, he has scored 20,014 runs in international cricket. Within the same period he lies just second behind Kumar Sangakkara. AB De Villiers captained South Africa in all formats, but since his injuries, he stepped down from Test captaincy and continued in ODI and T20. However, with defeats in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and England series, he stepped down from ODI and T20 captaincy as well. On 23 May 2018, he announced. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was born in Warmbad, South Africa, enjoyed what he described as the "really relaxed lifestyle up there, where everyone knows everyone", he went to high school in Pretoria along with teammate Faf du Plessis.
They attended the prestigious Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool. AB returned home for weekends, his father was a doctor who had played rugby union in his youth, he encouraged his son to play sports. His autobiography was published in September 2016, he has been involved in charity works. De Villiers is a right-handed batsman who has accumulated over 8,000 runs in Tests including 22 centuries and 46 fifties, he holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck, before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman, with 278; until 2012 he was an occasional wicket-keeper for South Africa, although after the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own captaincy he has started to keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He handed the gloves to debutant Quinton de Kock, he holds the records for the fastest 50, 100 and 150 of all time in One Day Internationals by any batsmen, holds the fastest hundred by a South African in Tests and the fastest 50 by South African in T20Is.
He is a three-time ICC ODI player of the year, winning the award in 2010, 2014 and 2015. He succeeded Graeme Smith after the 2011 Cricket World Cup for the ODI captaincy and Hashim Amla after the Second Test of the England in South Africa series for the Test captaincy, he stepped down from Test captaincy in December 2016 due to an elbow injury which kept him out of the team for a long period. De Villiers became the second-youngest and second-fastest South African to reach 1,000 test runs after Graeme Pollock. In his Test career so far has batted and kept wicket. After a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4, he made his Test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made an impressive opening the batting, but was dropped down the order for the second Test and handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match saving half century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final Test of the series and has played the majority of his Test innings there.
Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a Test series win, his rapid progress was halted on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well, he made just 152 runs in 6 innings, he has been used in a similar fashion to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs, opening the innings, although he bats in the middle order. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 12 fours and one six, from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series. De Villiers has a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2006, when he dived to stop the ball, while still lying on his stomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder and effected a direct hit; this has led people to make further comparisons of him to Jonty Rhodes, one of the finest fielders of his generation. His fielding positions other than wicketkeepers are 2nd slip and cover.
In 2009, he was nominated for ICC Test Player of the year. On 6 June 2011 S. A. coach Gary Kirsten announced that AB de Villiers would be South Africa's new limited-
West Indies cricket team
The West Indies cricket team, traditionally known as the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing the Anglophone Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West Indies. The players on this composite team are selected from a chain of fifteen Caribbean territories, which are parts of several different countries and dependencies; as of 24 June 2018, the West Indian cricket team is ranked ninth in the world in Tests, ninth in ODIs and seventh in T20Is in the official ICC rankings. From the mid-late 1970s to the early 1990s, the West Indies team was the strongest in the world in both Test and One Day International cricket. A number of cricketers who were considered among the best in the world have hailed from the West Indies: Sir Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs, George Headley, Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Sir Andy Roberts, Rohan Kanhai, Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner, Sir Viv Richards and Sir Wes Hall have all been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
The West Indies have won the ICC Cricket World Cup twice, the ICC World Twenty20 twice, the ICC Champions Trophy once, the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup once, have finished as runners-up in the Cricket World Cup, the Under 19 Cricket World Cup, the ICC Champions Trophy. The West Indies appeared in three consecutive World Cup finals, were the first team to win back-to-back World Cups; the West Indies has hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. The current side represents: Sovereign states Antigua and BarbudaL Barbados DominicaW GrenadaW Guyana Jamaica Saint LuciaW Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesW Trinidad and Tobago Parts of Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint KittsL NevisL British Overseas Territories AnguillaL MontserratL British Virgin IslandsL Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Sint MaartenL Territory of the United States US Virgin IslandsLLegends L = Participant of the Leeward Islands team and member of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association W = Participant of the Windward Islands team and member of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of ControlNotes Cricket West Indies, the governing body of the team, consists of the six cricket associations of Barbados, Jamaica and Tobago, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands.
The Leeward Islands Cricket Association consists of associations of one sovereign state, the two entities of Saint Kitts and Nevis, three British Overseas Territories and two other dependencies. The Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control consists of associations of four sovereign states. Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, other historical parts of the former West Indies Federation and now British Overseas Territories, have their own teams. National teams exist for the various islands, which, as they are all separate countries much keep their local identities and support their local favourites; these national teams take part in the Carib Beer Cup. It is common for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up games before they take on the combined West Indies team; the population of these countries and dependencies is estimated at around 6 million, more than Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. The member associations of Cricket West Indies are: Barbados Cricket Association Guyana Cricket Board Jamaica Cricket Association Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board Leeward Islands Cricket Association.
The WICB joined the sport's international ruling body, the Imperial Cricket Conference, in 1926, played their first official international match, granted Test status, in 1928, thus becoming the fourth Test nation. In their early days in the 1930s, the side represented the British colonies that would form the West Indies Federation plus British Guiana; the last series the West Indies played before the outbreak of the Second World War was against England in 1939. There followed a hiatus. Of the West Indies players in that first match after the war only Gerry Gomez, George Headley, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Foffie Williams had played Test cricket. In 1948, leg spinner Wilfred Ferguson became the first West Indian bowler to take ten wickets in a Test, finishing with 11/229 in a match against England.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
The Royal Challengers Bangalore are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, that plays in the Indian Premier League. One of the original eight teams in the IPL, the team has made three final appearances in the IPL, losing all; the team finished runners-up in the 2011 CLT20, losing the final against the Mumbai Indians. The home ground of the Royal Challengers is the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore; the team is captained by Virat Kohli and coached by Gary Kirsten. The team holds the records of both the highest and the lowest total in the IPL. In September 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the establishment of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 competition to be started in 2008; the teams for the competition, representing 8 different cities of India, including Bangalore, were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008. The Bangalore franchise was purchased by Vijay Mallya; this was the second highest bid for a team, next only to Reliance Industries' bid of US$111.9 million for the Mumbai Indians.
Ahead of the 2008 player auction, the IPL named Rahul Dravid as the icon player for the Bangalore franchise, which meant that Dravid would be paid 15% more than the highest bid player at the auction. The franchise acquired a number of Indian and international players at the auction such as Jacques Kallis, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn and Cameron White, they signed up Ross Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq and India under-19 World Cup winning captain Virat Kohli in the second round of auction. The team won only 4 of the 14 matches in the inaugural season, finishing seventh in the eight-team table. Only Dravid managed to score more than 300 runs in the tournament and they had to bench their costliest foreign player Kallis for a few of the matches due to his poor form; the string of failures midway through the season led to the sacking of the CEO Charu Sharma, replaced with Brijesh Patel. Team owner Vijay Mallya went on to publicly criticize Dravid and Sharma for the players selected by them at the auction and stated that his "biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team."
The chief cricketing officer Martin Crowe resigned. At the 2009 player auction, the franchise signed up Kevin Pietersen for a record sum of US$1.55 million, making him the joint costliest player, along with fellow Englishman Andrew Flintoff, signed up by the Chennai Super Kings for the same amount. They traded Khan for Robin Uthappa with the Mumbai Indians and roped in local batsman Manish Pandey from them. Ahead of the tournament, shifted to South Africa due to the general elections, the Royal Challengers named Pietersen as the team captain for the season. Bangalore continued to struggle during the initial games of the 2009 season, winning only two of their first six games under the new captain. However, the team's fortunes improved after Pietersen left for national duty and Kumble took over the captaincy, as the team went on to win six of their remaining eight league games to finish third on the points table; the team qualified for the semifinal. Electing to field first, Bangalore restricted their opponents to 146 and chased down the total with 5 wickets in hand thanks to 48 and 44 by Pandey and Dravid respectively.
In the final against Deccan Chargers, the Royal Challengers bowlers, led by Kumble's 4 for 16, kept the Chargers down to 143/6. However, they struggled in the runchase, with only four batsmen reaching double figures, lost the match by six runs in a tense finish. In 2010, the Royal Challengers continued under Kumble's captaincy and finished the regular season with seven wins from 14 matches and 14 points, they were one of the four teams tied on 14 points with two semifinal spots at stake. In the semifinal, the Royal Challengers were defeated by the table-toppers Mumbai Indians by 35 runs. With a convincing nine-wicket win over defending champions Deccan Chargers in the third-place playoff, the Royal Challengers qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20. Kumble retired at the conclusion of the Champions League, having led the team to the semifinals of both the IPL and the CLT20 that year. On 8 January 2011, IPL Governing Council held the auction for the season 4 of the league; the franchises had the option of retaining a maximum of four players for a sum of US$4.5 million.
Royal Challengers however retained only one of their players, Virat Kohli, leaving the rest of the players back in the auction pool. When other IPL franchises let go the non-performers from each of their teams, RCB lost the top performers from the previous season by releasing them back to auction pool. On Day-One of the auction, Bangalore bought Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan for $650,000, their former player and Mumbai Indians spearhead Zaheer Khan for $900,000, Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate for $400,000, ace middle order batsman AB de Villiers for $1.1mn, former New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori for $550,000, India's new sensation, who played with Mumbai Indians until last season, Saurabh Tiwary for a whopping $1.6 million. West Indian batsman Chris Gayle was brought in as a replacement for the injured Dirk Nannes in the middle of the tournament. Vettori led the side for the fourth season of the IPL. RCB kicked off their campaign with a comfortable six-wicket win over the newly formed team, Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
But they suffered th
South Africa national rugby union team
The South Africa national rugby union team known as the Springboks, is governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerseys with white shorts, their emblems are the Springbok and the King Protea; the team has been representing South Africa in international rugby union since 30 July 1891, when they played their first test match against a British Isles touring team. Although South Africa was instrumental in the creation of the Rugby World Cup competition, the Springboks did not compete in the first two World Cups in 1987 and 1991 because of anti-apartheid sporting boycotts of South Africa; the team made its World Cup debut in 1995, when the newly democratic South Africa hosted the tournament. The Springboks defeated the All Blacks 15–12 in the final, now remembered as one of the greatest moments in South Africa's sporting history, a watershed moment in the post-Apartheid nation-building process. South Africa regained their title as champions 12 years when they defeated England 15–6 in the 2007 final.
As a result of the 2007 World Cup tournament the Springboks were promoted to first place in the IRB World Rankings, a position they held until July the following year when New Zealand regained the top spot. They were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards; the Springboks compete in the annual Rugby Championship, along with southern-hemisphere counterparts Argentina and New Zealand. They have won this championship on three occasions in sixteen years, they play Test matches against the various rugby-playing nations. Their position in the World Rugby Rankings has varied between No. 7 positions. The first British Isles tour took place at Diocesan College; these were the first representative games played by South African sides. The tourists won; the British Isles' success continued on their tour of 1896, winning three out of four tests against South Africa. South Africa's play improved from 1891, their first test win in the final game was a pointer to the future. In 1903 the British Isles lost a series for the first time in South Africa, drawing the opening two tests before losing the last 8–0.
Rugby was given a huge boost by the early Lions tours, which created great interest in the South African press. South Africa would not lose another series—home or away—until 1956; the first South African team to tour the British Isles and France occurred during 1906–07. The team played tests against all four Home Nations. England managed a draw; the trip instilled a sense of national pride among South Africans. The South Africans played an unofficial match against a'France' team while the official French team were in England, it was during this tour. The 1910 British Isles tour of South Africa was the first to include representatives from all four Home unions; the tourists won just one of their three tests. The Boks' second European tour took place in 1912–13, they beat the four Home nations to earn their first Grand Slam, defeated France. By the first World War, New Zealand and South Africa had established themselves as rugby's two greatest powers. A Springbok tour to New Zealand and Australia in 1921 was billed as "The World Championship of Rugby".
The All Blacks won the first Test 13–5, The Springboks recovered to win the second Test 9–5, the final Test was drawn 0–0, resulting in a series draw. The 1924 British and Irish Lions team to South Africa lost all four Tests to the Springboks; this was the first side to pick up the name Lions picked up from the Lions embroidered on their ties. The All Blacks first toured South Africa in 1928, again the Test series finished level; the Springboks won the first Test 17–0 to inflict the All Blacks' heaviest defeat since 1893. The All Blacks rebounded to win the second Test 7–6. After a Springbok win in the third Test, the All Blacks won 13 -- 5. Despite winning South Africa's second Grand Slam, the Springbok tourists of 1931–32 were an unloved team, due to their tactics of kicking for territory, it was successful however, winning against England, Ireland and Wales, as well as defeating all their Welsh opponents for the first time. In 1933, Australia toured South Africa, with the Springboks winning the series 3–2.
In 1937 South Africa toured New Zealand and Australia and their 2–1 series win prompted them to be called "the best team to leave New Zealand". The British Isles toured South Africa again in 1938; the Springboks secured easy victories in the first two tests. However, the Lions bounced back to record a win in the third test, for the first Lions win on South Africa soil since 1910. Danie Craven was appointed coach in 1949, started his coaching career winning ten matches in a row, including a 4–0 whitewash of New Zealand on their 1949 tour to South Africa; the 1951–52 team that toured Europe was considered amongst the finest Springbok sides to tour. The team won the Grand Slam as well as defeating France. Hennie Muller captained the side; the South African highlight of the tour was a 44–0 defeat of Scotland. The team finished to London Counties, from 31 matches. In 1953, Australia toured South Africa for the second time and although they lost the series they defeated South Africa 18–14 in the second test.
This was the first Springbok defeat for 15 years. The 1955 British Lions tour to South Africa four-test series ended in a draw. In 1956, Springboks toured Australasia the All Blacks won its first series over the Springboks, in "the most bitterly fought series in histor
Kensington Oval
The Kensington Oval is a stadium located to the west of the capital city Bridgetown on the island of Barbados. It is the pre-eminent sporting facility on the island and is used for cricket. Locally referred to as "The Mecca" of cricket, it has hosted many important and exciting cricket games between local and international teams during its more than 120-year history. Cricket at the Oval began in 1882 when the Pickwick Cricket Club assumed formal ownership of the ground; the first international match held was in 1895. The first Test match was held in January 1930, when the West England played to a draw. Since the genesis there have been a total of 43 Test matches played on the Kensington Oval grounds, 21 of those matches won by the West Indian cricket team; the new stadium has been commemorated through two 2007 Barbadian postage stamps. The stands of the Kensington Oval were extensively rebuilt for the 2007 Cricket World Cup in a BDS$90M redevelopment. Demolition of the old stadium began on schedule in June, 2006 after completion of the first Test against Pakistan.
Innotech Construction Inc. reconstructed the new Kensington Oval in late September into early October, 2006 and the team from the Barbados Light & Power Company cut down and removed some of the old utility poles at the traffic lights at the Holborn Circle, the entrances and exits of Fontabelle Road, Spring Garden Highway, Prescod Boulevard and Harbour Road and they planted new utility poles with electrical transmitters attached on to them. They dug up, resurfaced and repaved Prescod Boulevard and Fontabelle Road just in time for Cricket World Cup 2007 in Barbados; the names of the former stands which made up the Kensington stadium were the George Challenor stand, the Hall and Griffith, the Kensington, the Mitchie Hewitt, the Pickwick, the Three Ws stand plus the Peter Short Media Centre. Most of these names have been retained. In 2004, the STRI construction team were chosen to redevelop the Kensington Oval outfield, after they were involved with the Lord's Cricket Ground outfield reconstruction.
The topsoil on the grounds previous outfield was a sandy clay loam, which struggled to cope with Bridgetown's occasional heavy rainfall, with climate data indicating that a storm lasting up to an hour could dump about 50mm of rain once every five years. The topsoil was a complete mixture of soils and varied in depth, lying over ancient coral reef limestone; the new outfield consists of. Although many types of grass options was suggested to be used for the outfield, it was decided to use Tifway 419 hybrid Bermuda grass as this type of grass is disease resistant and spreads to ensure quick recovery from injury and allows close mowing; the Cricket pitch was reconstructed with a profile consisting of. The square's soil is made up of 71% clay, 14% silt and 14% sand and during the redevelopment it was isolated from the rest of the ground so that it could be constructed before the outfield was completed; the pitch square's was sown down with Princess Bermuda grass, with the base and soil added in layers, before completion in May 2006.
The Kensington Oval has hosted many non-cricket events such as matches of the Barbados national football team, inter-school athletics, Miss Barbados pageants, concert events. The ground has a jumbo TV screen and a jacuzzi type area, for fans to watch while relaxing in the pool. Behind this is a large grassy hill for fans to have picnics on, which has a bunker underneath for the media. On 5 August 2011 Rihanna performed at the Kensington Oval for the first time in her home country on her Loud Tour, she planned another show for 1 November 2013 as a part her Diamonds World Tour, however the concert was cancelled due to technical difficulties. The expanded Kensington Oval was the venue for the 2007 Cricket World Cup final between Australia and Sri Lanka, held on 28 April, with the official attendance reaching 20,108; this was the first World Cup final to be a repeat – the sides met in the 1996 World Cup final, which Sri Lanka won. Australia has won every World Cup match against Sri Lanka apart from that loss.
The match was Sri Lanka's second World Cup final appearance and Australia's sixth, their fourth in a row. Ricky Ponting elected to bat. However, the start of play was delayed due to rain, the match was reduced to 38 overs per side. Adam Gilchrist played an incredible innings of 149 – the highest for any batsman in a World Cup final – to give Australia an imposing total going in at to break. While Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya were adding 116 for the second wicket, the contest was alive, but after the pair got out, Sri Lanka's chances washed way. Further rain forced the reduction of Sri Lanka's innings to just 36 overs, with the target revised to 269. At the culmination of the 33rd over, with Sri Lanka still trailing the adjusted Duckworth-Lewis target by 37 runs, the umpires suspended the game due to bad light. While Australia's players began to celebrate their victory, the umpires incorrectly announced that because the match was suspended due to light and not rain, the final three overs would have to be bowled the following day.
With Sri Lanka needing 61 runs from 18 deliveries, Mahela Jayawardene agreed there was no need to return the following day, instructed his team to resume batting, with Ricky Ponting agreeing to play only spinners. Umpires a
South Africa v 
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