Proteas captain Temba Bavuma will lead the team at the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the Test Championship final at Lord's in 2025.
Image: Rodger Bosch / AFP
After a breathtaking 2024 with many sporting highs and lows, we can look forward to another bumper year with South Africa's sports stars competing for championships, trophies, belts, medals and a chance to enter the history books.
IOL Sport's John Goliath shares his sporting wishlist for 2025, hoping that Mzansi's sport stars can bring us more exhilarating moments and joy this year.
The Proteas came agonisingly close to winning their first major ICC title since 1998 when they lost to India in the final of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies. But they have another couple of chances to break that trophy drought in 2025 when they compete in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in February, before taking on Australia in the final of the World Test Championship at Lord's in June.
Their white-ball form has been rather iffy since that World Cup final in June, and the Proteas face a tough challenge against Australia, England and Afghanistan to get out of their group and reach the semi-finals. Temba Bavuma's Test team, on the other hand, have won their last six matches to qualify for the final. They now have six months to prepare for the biggest Test match in SA cricket history.
Dricus du Plessis made history in 2024 by becoming the first South African MMA fighter to win an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title when he defeated Sean Strickland in a middleweight championship bout. He then followed that up with a submission win over bitter rival Israel Adesanya in August to show that his first win was no fluke.
Du Plessis will again battle Strickland when he defends his title for a second time in Australia at UFC 312. There was talk about the fight being hosted in South Africa, but unfortunately UFC boss Dana White and his people couldn't find a suitable venue for the fight. Nevertheless, Du Plessis will have another chance to stick it to Strickland, who last yar called South Africa a s***t hole country.
The All Blacks haven't lost a match at their Eden Park fortress since July 3, 1994, when France beat them with "the try from the end of the world". Since then they have gone 50 matches unbeaten in Auckland, winning 48 and drawing two. But in 2025, in the Rugby Championship, that record will be on the line when they take on the world champions Springboks.
The Springboks, who have beaten the All Blacks in their last four meetings, haven't played at Eden Park since 2013 and will be licking their lips at the chance of making more history under Rassie Erasmus. The teams will meet at Eden Park on September 6, while the second match of that mini-tour will be played in Wellington a week later.
The Betway Premiership has been rather one-sided over the last decade, with Mamelodi Sundowns winning the last seven league titles. Sundowns are again leading the way going into 2025, but this season they have Orlando Pirates breathing down their necks. Pirates are just three points behind Sundowns (30 points after 11 matches), who have played one more fixture than the Soweto giants thus far.
Polokwane City, who have played 13 matches thus far, have been the surprise packages of the season, but find themselves five points behind Pirates, despite having played three matches more than the Buccaneers. So, it's essentially a race between Pirates and Sundowns for the crown. Hopefully none of them fall off the pace and we have competitive race to the finish line.
Akani Simbine finally got that Olympic medal monkey off his back at the 2024 Paris Games by leading the SA 4x100m relay team to a silver medal alongside Bayanda Walaza, Bradley Nkoana and Shaun Maswanganyi. Earlier in the Gaes, Simbine had narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100m final, despite clocking a new SA record of 9.82.
Simbine will now set his sights on glory at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan from September 13 to 21. At 31, the South African sprint great is coming towards the twilight of his athletics career and this could be one of the last times we still see him in his prime. Hopefully it will be a golden 2025 for our main guy in the sprints.
@JohnGoliath82