Dolphins

Nickname: Hollywoodbets Dolphins

Team Country: South Africa

Team City: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Team Administrator: South African Cricket Council

Founded (Year): 2003

Home Ground: Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban

Coach: Imraan Khan

Captain: Keshav Maharaj

Forms of Cricket: First-Class Limited Overs Twenty20

Dolphins: competitions

Dolphins: First-Class Cricket Competitions

Logo Tournament Wins Years 4-Day Domestic Series 1 2020-21

Dolphins: Limited Overs Cricket Competitions

Logo Tournament Wins Years Momentum One Day Cup 1 2019-20

Dolphins: Twenty20 Cricket Competitions

Logo Tournament Wins Years Betway T20 Challenge 1 2013-14

Dolphins: Current Squad

Andile Phehlukwayo All-rounder

Imran Tahir Bowler

Dolphins: professional club from South Africa

The Dolphins is a professional cricket club from the Republic of South Africa. The team represents the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the capital of which is Pietermaritzburg. The Dolphins was formed in 2003. The club has three victories in the first-class 4-Day Domestic Series championship, 1 title in short matches CSA Twenty20 Challenge (2014), and two victories in the Momentum One Day Cup tournament (2018 and 2020) ). The club plays its home games at the 25,000-seat Kingsmead Cricket Ground in Durban. The team’s traditional colors are black and green.

The Dolphins – internal problems of the country

Cricket in South Africa is one of the most popular sports. For the first time, the country learned about him in 1808. The first championship appeared in 1889. Unfortunately, due to segregation (the forced division of people into racial, ethnic or other groups in everyday life), cricket in the country could not become a popular sport for a century. It got to the point that in 1961 South Africa was expelled from the International Cricket Council. Finally, in the early 1990s, apartheid (this is the official state policy for the racial division of people) in the country ended.

The United Cricket Council of the South (UCB) was established in South Africa in 1991. The republic was returned to the status of a full member of the ICC in the same year. In addition, an in-house company, Cricket South Africa, was created in 2002, which worked in conjunction with UCB. The CSA took over the leadership and responsibility of professional cricket, and the UCB oversaw the amateur portion of the popular sport.

Today, the South African Cricket Council is the only governing body that oversees all levels of cricket in the country.

The Dolphins – club creation

The professional test cricket championship in the 4-Day Domestic Series (called SuperSport at the time) was expanded in 2004 with a new team called the Dolphins. In addition to this tournament, the team began to play in the Momentum One Day Cup (then the tournament was called the MTN Domestic Competition) and the CSA Twenty20 Challenge Championship (in 2004, Standard Bank Pro20).

At the end of the debut season, the Dolphins club in 2005 shared the championship title with the players from the Eagles team ( they were renamed the Knights in 2010). The next season, the situation repeated itself, only with a different team – the Titans. These are not completely clean victories in the championship. However, these two titles are officially considered the 1st major Dolphin awards.

The next champion title awaited the cricket team in 2014. Making their 2nd final of the CSA Twenty20 Short Match tournament, the Dolphins beat Cape Cobras 146/8 – 144/7.

The unique ending of the season happened in 2018, already at the Momentum One Day Cup. The Dolphins, having beaten the Cape Cobras team in the semifinals, advanced to the final. There the Warriors Club was waiting for them. The match took place on February 2, and however, due to the rain that started during the game, it was decided to postpone the final to the next day. But on February 3, weather conditions did not allow organizing a control match. As a result, the championship title of one-day matches went to 2 teams at once.

The club nevertheless achieved its goal and became the Momentum One Day Cup winner for the first time in 2020. And already in March 2021, the Dolphins won their 6th (3rd separate) title in the first-class 4-Day Domestic Series tournament.

Dolphins – the end and beginning of a new story

In fact, understanding South Africa’s cricket is not an easy dozen things to do. However, after reading several sources, we conclude that the Dolphins team will no longer compete in the 2021-2022 cricket season. Let’s explain in a nutshell.

The Dolphins is a franchise club that, along with 5 other teams, was formed in 2003. According to a March 2021 statement from the Cricket South Africa Council, the domestic cricket championship will be reorganized. The new competition format from next season will consist of 2 divisions (upper and lower level). In total, there will be 15 top-notch teams in South African professional cricket:

1st division:

1. the KwaZulu-Natal, Durban city;
2. the Gauteng, city of Johannesburg;
3. the North West, Potchefstroom city;
4. the Northerns, city of Centurion;
5. the Eastern Province, Port Elizabeth;
6. the Free State, city of Bloemfontein;
7. the Boland, city of Paarl;
8. the Western Province, Cape Town.

2nd division:

1. the South Western Districts, the city of Oudtshoorn;
2. the KwaZulu-Natal Inland, city of Pietermaritzburg;
3. the Northern Cape, city of Kimberley;
4. the Limpopo, city of Polokwane;
5. the Easterns, Benoni City;
6. the Mpumalanga, White River City;
7. the Border, city of East London.

It should be noted that most of these teams were formed back in the 19th-20th centuries.

According to the list, it can be traced that the province, which the Dolphins represented, is now under the control of the teams of the same name KwaZulu-Natal (1889) and KwaZulu-Natal Inland (2006). By the way, the 1st team has a large number of champion awards. These include 21 Currie Cup wins (now the 4-Day Domestic Series), 4 Standard Bank Cup titles (now CSA T20) and one top-notch 3-day CSA Provincial Competitions.