Much industry in the cricket world, as the new South African season prepares to emerge from a hibernation that can barely be measured in hours. Such is the professional game; no gentle introduction, though, for the world's elite, along with 15 West Indians who?ve each won a two-week holiday package to Gauteng (methinks South African visions of Barbados vacations don't quite mirror Caribbean visions of a fortnight in Centurion), are rolling into town. Everywhere you look, cricket is readying itself for a frenetic end to the year.

Bakers, a critical platform for instilling a love of the game in young South Africans, has been at work with more kids this week; one hopes that the girth of one or two of our national cricketers doesn't encourage their junior fans to place too much reliance on Bakers products. It?s been a long and successful partnership between biscuits and cricket, though, and a rallying cry to the next generation of stars is an appropriate way to begin another year's support of a team full of players who cut their milk teeth on Eet Sum Mor and Nuttikrust.

Those players (who now have a cricket version of the iconic Zoo Biscuit with which to occupy those lonely moments between Zinger Burger and Streetwise Two) sit proudly astride the world rankings in both forms of the games; the first, and arguably greater, challenge to both top spots comes in the Champions Trophy. By then, if England continue to roll over and play dead in one-day cricket, Australia may have taken over at the top, but whether South Africa starts the tournament at one or two in the world, the question marks that hover uncomfortably over limited-overs competitions makes this an event the Proteas will be desperate to win.

A surging early run from South Africa will only raise the tempo of the competition, which will hopefully ignite the same fervour in Gauteng that the Indian Premier League did earlier this year; that will only increase the pressure on South Africa to deliver, though, and bury assorted ghosts of tournaments past. We?ve been spoilt for cricket this year, or excitement at the players en route to South Africa would be far greater; even so, expect Centurion and the Wanderers (no longer forbidden territory) to be packed solid for the Champions Trophy.

And from there, it's into a season that culminates (via India, and more 20-over cricket) in the Test series against an England side set to save plenty of money by having half of the team stay with their parents in South Africa. No Andrew Flintoff, perhaps, who Chubby Chandler, Freddie?s agent, is signing to everyone from the Dolphins and South Australia to Barcelona and the Dallas Cowboys, but an Ashes-winning team nonetheless, backed by an army of fans that make for the game?s definitive travelling corps of entertainers.

And while the need for the Heimlich Manoeuvre will remain a simmering concern every time we hit a semi or final, ending the summer on top looks a distinct possibility; a penchant for the occasional packet of Strawberry Whirls hardly offsets a talented and complete unit that isn't dissimilar to the rugby brethren ruling the world so comfortably. Champions Trophy victory, a win for the Cobras in India, and a twin triumph over Andrew Strauss's South Africa 'A'? In a country that claims the Springboks, try telling us anything else can happen.