South African Test Cricket Tour of India 2008 - History, Schedule and The Teams

South Africa tours India to play 3 Test Cricket Matches from 26th March to 15th April.

Both teams are coming from successful overseas tours. South Africa just finished their tour of Bangladesh where they won all the test and ODI matches and even moved past the world champions Australia as the best ranked ODI side. Even though India lost the test series 2-1 in Australia they won the Commonwealth Bank ODI Series beating Australia in the finals 2-0. Both teams are equal strong but the home environment will give India a small advantage.

A Brief History

In 1991, nearly 22 years after being isolated from the international fold due to apartheid, South Africa arrived in India for a three-match one-day series. And in 1992 India had the privilege of being the first international side to play a Test in South Africa since 1970. Here are the past series and results.

1991-92 in India - India won the ODI series 2-1
1992-93 in South Africa - South Africa won the Test and ODI series 1-0 and 5-2
1996-97 in India - India won the Test series 2-1
1996-97 in South Africa - South Africa won the Test series 2-0
1999-00 in India - South Africa won the Test series 2-0. India won the ODI series 3-2
2001-02 in South Africa - South Africa won the Test series 1-0
2004-05 in India - India won the Test series 1-0
2005-06 in India - ODI Series drawn 2-2
2006-07 in South Africa - Africa won the Test series 2-1. South Africa won the ODI series 4-0. India won the only Twenty20 international.

Here is the schedule for this series

1st Test - 26th to 30th March 2008 - MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
2nd Test - 3rd to 7th April 2008 - Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
3rd Test - 11th to 15th April 2008 - Green Park, Kanpur

The Teams

Both sides got many experienced as well as young talented players.

Indian Team - Anil Kumble (Captain), MS Dhoni (Vice-captain/wicket keeper), Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Wasim Jaffer, Murali Kartik, VVS Laxman, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Virender Sehwag, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh

South African Team - Graeme Smith (Captain), Ashwell Prince (Vice-captain), Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher(Wicket keeper), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Paul Harris, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Monde Zondeki

Watch the Matches Live

As the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry of India decided not to term this test series a "event of a national importance", the first match will not be aired on Doordarshan (DD), nor on All India Radio (AIR), leaving several hundred million fans without access to the game. The fates of the other two matches are also uncertain. Most probably they also will not be aired for the general public.