It is the second most popular sport in South Africa and South Africa is one of the ten leading cricket nations that play Test match cricket.
Cricket was traditionally popular among English-speaking whites, and the Asian community, though the latter were not able to compete in top level South African cricket in the Apartheid era. Since the end of the Apartheid era a higher proportion of white players have come from Afrikaans-speaking backgrounds, and attempts have been made to increase the number of non-white players, in part through a quota system.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in South Africa. is the only sport in South Africa to feature in the top two sports of all race groups. This has had both successes - Herschelle Gibbs one of the sport's most dominating batsmen, the black bowler Makhaya Ntini reached number 2 in the ICC Player Rankings in 2006 - and unintended side effects. Kevin Pietersen, who is white, left the country claiming that he was put at a disadvantage by positive discrimination, and within a few years became one of the world's top batsmen - as a member of the England cricket team.
South Africa is one of the strongest teams and in 2006 in Johannesburg in what many considered the Greatest ODI Ever, South Africa led by Herschelle Gibb's 175 chased down Australia's mammoth and then world record score of 434-3. South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup an event that was disappointing to them as they tied against Sri Lanka and were eliminated on homesoil. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup South Africa reached the semi-finals of the event but lost to Australia.