Cronje already ranks as one of the most successful one-day cricketers in history and has built a phenomenal record as captain, leading his team to 80 wins and only 26 defeats in 109 matches.

He admits, though, that his crowning ambition is to win the World Cup.It will be Cronje's third crack at the only official world championship in cricket.

In 1992, he was a rookie in the South African team which reached the semi-finals in Australia and New Zealand in the country's first tournament after re-admission to international cricket.In 1996 he was bitterly disappointed when he led South Africa on a rampage through the round-robin stage in Pakistan, only to slip up at the first knock-out hurdle in a quarter-final match against the West Indies in Karachi.

Cronje epitomises the all-actionstyle of the South African team.

Supremely fit, he had to cut down on road running when he started to have knee trouble. Instead, he swims for an hour or more on non-playing days to go with his daily gym workouts.

He is the iron man of international cricket and has only missed five of South Africa's 164 one-day games - the first three against India in 1991, one during the 1992 World Cup when he was not picked and just one through injury, in Sri Lanka in 1993, when he had a sore back.

He starts the upcoming tournament as South Africa's leading one-day run-scorer with 4,825 at an average just under 40. He became the 16th player in history to complete the limited overs "double" when he took his 100th wicket during the recent tour of New Zealand.

Cronje believes every ball and every run are potentially vital in one-day cricket. As a batsman he takes every run-scoring chance.

A powerful hitter, especially against spin bowlers who he likes to club over midwicket, he could have improved on his tally of twocenturies and might have had a higher average if he had not sacrificed his wicket on several occasions trying to in crease the tempo in the late overs of an innings.

Aggressive running between the wickets is a trademark of Cronje's and the South African team, but it is one area where the captain feels they can improve in order to squeeze out extra runs.

Cronje is a canny medium-pace bowler but, because of his troublesome Left knee, he often turns to his other all-rounders.

Within the confines of one-day tactics, Cronje has shown an ability to switch strategy within a game, as when he instructed his fast bowlers to bowl short against the West Indies in Durban this year.

They risked being no-balled for deliveries lifting above shoulder height but itcaused sufficient disruption to the batsmen for South Africa to snatch victory from looming defeat. Cronje's World Cup tactics will be watched closely. He has said South Africa will aim to win every match - but he will need to carefully marshall his resourcesto enable the side to peak for the knockout stages.