Hasim Amla and his Proteas have just reaffirmed their status as the world’s best test cricket team with their series victory over the West Indies.

However, for most fans of the Proteas’ one big shortcoming still remains in spite of the team’s achievements over the past 23 years since South Africa’s re-entry into the international arena. It is the fact that the South Africans, despite their six attempts, have never been able to win the cricket world cup.

The Proteas will find this year’s tournament of almost symbolic meaning and if ever there was a real opportunity to break the world cup curse, then it will be this year. The symbolic meaning is related to the fact that, after 23 years, the tournament will return to Australia and New Zealand, where it was presented in 1992 when South Africa could participate for the first time.

In that event, an inexperienced South African team delivered one of the best performances ever by the Proteas in the World Cup. Who will ever forget how the weather and technical calculations eliminated South Africa from the final of that tournament?

However, it is World Cup time again and AB de Villiers and his men will again be one of the favourite teams to bring the cup home. The top 14 one-day cricket teams in the world are coming together to play 49 matches over 44 days in Australia and New Zealand, with the goal of winning cricket’s greatest prize.

The teams are split into two groups of seven teams each. Each team plays six games across the 14 different venues. Once all of the teams in each pool have played each other, the top four teams in each pool will progress to the quarterfinals. The four winners of those sudden-death matches will play off in the semi-finals, before the final is held on Sunday March 29 at the MCG in Melbourne.