text: In 1989/90 Wessels also played for South Africa against a rebel English team captained by Mike Gatting. He scored 1 & 2 in the only match played, which South Africa won.
  Captain of the 'new' South Africa
  With apartheid being removed from South Africa in 1991, the International Cricket Council unanimously removed the ban against playing South Africa. As a result, South Africa could now play Test and One-day international cricket.
  The 1992 Cricket World Cup
  When South Africa played its first Test since March 1970, ten of the eleven players were making their debuts. At 34, Wessels had both the first-class experience of contemporaries such as Clive Rice and Jimmy Cook, but also had experience at Test level that no other South African player had. As a result of these credentials, he was chosen to captain the inexperienced South African side to the 1992 Cricket World Cup, which would signal the country's return to official international cricket. The decision to name Wessels captain over such local heroes as Rice and Cook (who both didn't even make the side) was met by widespread controversy. More than 10 000 signatures were collected for a petition against the dropping of Rice and Cook, while 71 percent of provincial players told the Sunday Times in South Africa, that they had no confidence in the selectors.