In a new world order of cricket, will those replacing Australia do a better job ?

Cricket lovers have greeted the prospect of the end of Australian domination with mixed feelings. Some see the exit of the Australians as an absolute and others believe they might still stick around in the top three for a bit, even without their retired stars.

The question now, in the face of a waning Australian side, is whether the contenders can do a better job on the international stage than Ricky Ponting and his men did.

'The Proteas offer the best hope of bringing the sport to a billion people in Africa while removing it from the British Empire and its colonies'


South Africa, with Graeme Smith at the helm, stand perpendicular to Australia in style. As the mostly likely incumbents to reign for the next decade, their brand of cricket will dominate. Those that have been caught up in the Australians' cheap-thrills style of cricketing marketing will certainly be concerned. However, the sport of cricket will bloom like never before under the rule of the development-orientated South Africans.

Cricket, traditionally an elite sport, needs a new era of development to save it from its current malaise. The Proteas offer the best hope of bringing the sport to a billion people in Africa while removing it from the British Empire and its colonies, most notably Australia (a nation with strong British sentiments).

South Africa, dubbed the Rainbow Nation, acts as an intermediary between many different cultures and this is what they can offer cricket as the number one nation.

Connecting the dots through the East and West via South Africa, the Proteas offer hope for the sport of cricket, which desperately needs to spread its wings across more of Africa and into new regions like South America and China.

The western media hype of the Australians has had its run; the next evolution of the game will see South Africa take the sport into the stratosphere, boldly going where no-one has gone before!