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Every team enjoys success at some point or another in their history (bar the Arizona Cardinals), and some are better than others at achieving success be it down to personel, determination or sheer luck. The Proteas can count two of those facets amongst their armoury but the third appears to alude them on any stage involving the dreaded phrase ‘knock-out’. A quick scan of the squad to take on the rest of the world on home soil in the up and coming Champions Trophy highlights a strong presence of fine cricketers. In Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, South Africa possess spin twins to rival the magic of Murali and Mendis in the limited overs game. Though neither has the awe of Murali or the mystery of Mendis, both off-spinners have the enviable ability to prize out batsmen. If on the rare occasion this doesn’t occur, their accuracy and changes of pace, flight mean that opposing batsmen often have to take uneccessary risks later on in the innings to boost a dwindling run-rate.

Elsewhere the bowling looks equally as dangerous - Dale Steyn has pace and attitude. He is more than capable of sending back some of the world’s finest in the opening overs with agressive pitched up swing bowling and an attacking field to match. At the other end is the emerging left armer Wayne Parnell. At the tender age of 19, he already possesses a demon yorker to stifle an end of innings counter attack, and can also keep it tight on off-stump during the opening overs. To back this up Graeme Smith can call upon Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel and JP Duminy to reinforce the four main attackers.

The batting’s not bad either. Smith and Kallis offer brutal, technically correct hitting at the top, with Gibbs floating around to take a game away if he gets his eye in. de Villiers acts as the rock in the middle order who can both destroy and rebuild with ease. Duminy provides another safety net as well as some late order hitting at 5. To finish an innings off in style, South Africa have probably the finest lower-middle order in Morkel, Boucher and van der Merwe. Though he is past his best, Boucher can still thrive at the highest level on his day and van der Merwe can match the best in the world in terms of six hitting. Morkel needs no introduction.

So why are South Africa perhaps not most people’s favourites to lift the trophy? Possibly because on paper they look the most complete unit, and New Zealand rugby fans will be well aware that this does not automatically give you the cup. Barring Australia in the last 12 years, the team tagged ‘favouites’ have often been betted on with caution, mainly due to the unpredictability of cricket, and the fact that a star can appear from nowhere and win the game against the odds. History plays an unfortunate part, too - Shaun Pollock crossed Messrs Duckworth and Lewis off his christmas card list (Boucher crossed out Pollock too) after the nightmare of 2003 on home turf as clear cut favourites. Further back in time you’ll find a haunted Klusener and a man by the name of Donald who never enjoyed having a bat in his hand, although running was usually his forte. Fast forward to the semi-final of the World 20/20 this year and an inspired Shahid Afridi, and you’ll quickly understand why a bet on South Africa should be approached with extreme caution.

So how do teams get past the world number 1 and overwhelming favourites? Apart from arranging a semi-final meeting, weaknesses can be found in the Protea juggernaut. Firstly, take the attack to Steyn. Steyn feeds off batsmen staying back in their crease instinctively due to his raw speed and swing. Even stepping out of the crease by a foot can turn those nasty away swingers into low full bungers, and if you can overcome him mentally, Steyn will begin to lose his composure. Rotating the strike on the spinners prevents them from getting any pressure to build. Also, if you can take the risk and hit one of them out of the attack, you can force Smith out of the comfort of his bowling plans, and he may be forced to alter the bowling lineup so that it could become easier to score later on in the innings off a less accomplished bowler.

To conquer the batting lineup, Gibbs needs to be either starved of the strike or gotten early. A subtle change of pace can turn Gibbs’ favourite smear over extra cover into a simple catch by the man on the edge of the inner circle. Keeping him at the non-striker’s end can also force him into a rash shot. Smith enjoys anything on his legs. He also likes it either full on off stump or around chest height so that he can punch it into the leg side. It would be better to send the ball around the nose and search for either a top edge or a bit of glove. The best way to stifle South Africa’s powerful lower order is to take them out of their comfort zone. Though he is extremely talented, Duminy can become bogged down if the bowling is tight, and can end up chewing up overs scratching around for singles rather than increasing the rate. Morkel, Boucher and van der Merwe enjoy entering the fray with around 6 overs to go so as to hit out at will. Getting them in early will force them to play a game that is not natural to them.

As you can see, it is obvious like any other team South Africa possess strengths and weaknesses in the One Day arena in both batting and bowling. To expose these weaknesses, opposing teams must be proactive in their approach - sitting back and expecting something to happen will play into the Proteas’ hands. Instead, captains must take risks and capitalise on even the smallest of opportunities, as historically it is clear that the South African machine can de-rail thanks to a tiny wobble. In their quests for glory, Australia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will also thank the ICC for making South Africa the hosts, too.

The list of great players to have never played a test match is an esteemed one. Be it international conflict, apartheid or simply very bad luck, numerous cricketers have been unable to showcase their obvious talent on the biggest stage of all. One of these players is Stephen Ogonji Tikolo, certainly the best player amongst the associate nations, and even at the age of 38, still a formidable force in the world of cricket. The reward to Kenya of full One-Day status in 1996 has provided Tikolo with a deserved chance to take on the very best with both bat and ball, and has regularly held his own. A resilient innings in a losing cause against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 1996 was a case in point. After Sri Lanka had racked up a then world record 398 from their fifty overs thanks to a majestic 145 from Aravinda de Silva, Tikolo proved to be head and shoulders above his fellow countrymen in what was a losing cause even before the Kenyans came out to bat. As the other Kenyan batsmen succumbed to the might of Vaas and Murali, Tikolo blazed eight 4s and four maximums in a 95 ball 96 to provide Kenya with some respectability as they finished on 254-7.

Though he never struck a century against the top nations, Tikolo provided defiant knock after defiant knock, often unbeaten, and you suspect that if there had been more consistency amongst the other Kenyan batsmen, then Tikolo may well have reached that elusive century more than once. An example of this was an innings of 68* against Pollock, Nel, Ntini and Kallis at Benoni in 2001. This innings is put into sharper context when the next highest score was 24 in the Kenyan innings, and was infact the highest score of the entire match, with Gary Kirsten’s 17 off 18 balls being the only innings to surpass Tikolo’s on strike rate.

3230 ODI runs, a first class average of 50.45, and a highest first class score of 220 is respectable for any player of any nation, and his two innings against Canada recently in a four day match highlight the fact that Tikolo is still at the top of his game. A score of 158, with the next highest score being 36 in the first innings, and 169 in the second innings show the sheer class of the man. Holding a strike rate of over 80 in both innings is just as impressive, too. But it’s not just the batting that sets Tikolo apart from the rest of the associate players. Tikolo can count Jayawardene, Laxman, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis, Gayle, Dravid and Yousuf amongst his international victims with his right-arm off spinners, and was probably the most successful captain of Kenya. In one of the greatest underdog stories in cricket, Tikolo lead Kenya to the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, defeating Canada, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before being knocked out one step from a final with Australia by India.

This achievement was the highest point of Kenya’s and Tikolo’s One-Day history, as afterwards results worsened, and opportunities to play the best teams in the world declined. However, Tikolo was selected to represent Africa against Asia in a series in 2007. He renounced the captaincy of Kenya soon after, and declared in April of this year that he would be retiring from cricket at the end of 2009.

Very few Associate players even come close to Tikolo in terms of achievement, success and class. Davison and Johnston stand out from the others, but Tikolo is long into the distance. A king amongst amateurs in the Associates, surely a great alongside other greats in the full International arena.