South Africa Emerging Players

Development sides don't usually hold a title, but the Emerging Proteas took Division Two of the CSA Provincial One-Day Challenge in the 2023/24 season, and they remain in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League Two for the 2023–2027 cycle.

Cricket South Africa set the team up in 2018 to replace the old South Africa A side and to fall in line with the International Cricket Council's push toward age-capped development squads. The first matches came that August, against the Sri Lanka Emerging Team, with an unofficial Test and one-day fixtures played in Sri Lanka itself.

There is no ground the side calls its own. Matches move between Pretoria venues, mostly the LC de Villiers Oval, which holds 2,000, and the Tuks Cricket Oval nearby, along with the Irene Villagers Cricket Club. The team wears the same green and gold as the senior Proteas.

Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee and Lutho Sipamla all passed through the Emerging Proteas before becoming full internationals, and Tony de Zorzi went the same route and now captains the side. Series wins have followed too: a 3-2 defeat of Zimbabwe Emerging Players in August 2023, then a 2-1 series win over the Bangladesh Emerging Team in May 2025.

With no fixed rival and no home of its own, the side's business is simply producing the next wave for the senior team, while it keeps working through the League Two schedule.