BIG READ: Proteas look to home comforts in 2027 for next shot at World Cup glory

The Proteas team during their T20 World Cup semifinal loss against New Zealand in India earlier this week. Picture: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto via Getty Images It was another bitterly disappointing end for the Proteas, as they were emphatically dumped out of the T20 Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka by the New Zealand Black Caps earlier this week. It extended an incredibly long and unsuccessful run in major limited over tournaments for South Africa, stretching back to their only triumph back in 1998 when they won the ICC Knockout Trophy, which is now known as the Champions Trophy.

Now, with South Africa hosting the ODI World Cup next year, along with Zimbabwe, the question is whether the Proteas can turn around their recent run of knockout heartbreak, and win the tournament on home soil? Since readmission to international cricket at the end of 1991, after isolation during the apartheid years, the Proteas quickly became one of the top teams in the world, but other than their Knockout Trophy win, they have just not managed to get over the line. In the ODI World Cup they reached the quarterfinal stage in 1996 and 2011, and the semifinal stage in 1992, 1999, 2007 and 2015.

They also reached the semifinals of the Knockout Cup in 2000, and the semis of the Champions Trophy in 2002, 2006 and 2013. There was then a spell when the Proteas slipped out of form and were not considered one of the top teams in the world, from after their heartbreaking 2015 ODI World Cup semifinal loss against the Black Caps in New Zealand, until 2023. During that time the Proteas were unable to make a single semifinal at major tournaments, which included the 2016, 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, the 2019 ODI World Cup in the UK, as well as the 2017 Champions Trophy, also in the UK.

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Finally, in 2023 they managed to turn things around, making the semifinals at the ODI World Cup in India, where they went down to Australia. And at the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, the Proteas went even better, making it to the final where they looked to be on course for a famous win, only to slip to an agonising defeat to India at the death. The 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE saw them reach another semifinal, but their old nemesis New Zealand stepped up again to send them packing.

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