South Africa’s sporting history is decorated with World Wars and political upheavals. Cricket is no exception to that. For a sport that has been played in the region since the 1880s, it’s premier first-class domestic competitions is held in high prestige. The CSA 4-day series organized by Cricket South Africa was earlier better known as the Currie Cup.
Several dynamic changes could be seen in the Currie Cup in terms of format and governance. It wasn’t till the early 1970s, when the Currie Cup’s rebranding to the Castle Cup saw the most encouraging sport in South Africa’s cricket history. Up until the 1990s, there was an appreciable stability at the domestic level. The Castle Cup became the SuperSport series and the 21st century saw the provincial teams being replaced with franchise teams.But the franchise era wasn’t met with agreement by South Africa’s players, pundits, and spectators. As a result, the 2020-21 season saw the CSA 4-day series return to its provincial format.
As of 2025, 15 teams participate in this competition. Boland, South Western Province, and Western Province represent the Western Cape. Lions, Titans, and Easterns represent Gauteng. Kwazulu-Natal is represented by Dolphins, and an inland side. Border and Warriors feature players from the Eastern Cape. The remaining teams are North West Dragons (North West Province), Knights (Free State), Limpopo (Limpopo), Mpumalanga (Mpumalanga), and Northern Cape (Northern Cape).
Eight teams are placed in Division One, and seven in Division Two. Teams in each division play the other in a round-robin format. At the end of this stage, the top two teams contest the final. The winner of the Division One group is declared the champions of the CSA 4-day series for that season. The winner of Division Two is promoted to Division One in the following season, whereas the last positioned side of Division One is relegated to Division Two.
A team earns 16 points for a win, 8 points each for a tie, 6 points each for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.
Additionally, bonus points are given to teams based on their performance in the first 100 overs of their first innings. They get 1 point if they manage 150 runs. Thereafter, every run scored is worth 0.02 points. The bowling side on the other hand gets one bonus point if they manage to take three wickets in this time span. After that, they earn 1 point for every two wickets they take till the 100th over of the first innings.
Before the franchise era kicked in, the provincial teams of Transvaal (Gauteng) was the most successful, winning 25 titles between 1889-90 to 2004-05. Since returning to the provincial format in 2021, Dolphins, Titans, and Lions have won one title each.
Graeme Pollock’s tally of 12,409 runs, which included 35 centuries remains unsurpassed in the history of the tournament. The leading wicket-taker is Vintcent van der Bijli with a record 572 wickets. Mike Procter deserves a special mention in this competition for his all-round abilities. He has twice taken over 50 wickets in a single season, is one of the five players to have recorded the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets, and has twice achieved the double of getting 400 runs and picking 40 wickets in a single season. Procter also took 98 wickets in the tournament. A few other players with a near-legendary record in this tournament are Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, and Clive Rice.
