Former New Zealand captains Ken Rutherford and John Reid and former New Zealand assistant coach Mark O'Donnell spent several seasons immersed in the South African system.
Rutherford, who works in the Republic for betting agency Phumelela, says work ethic, resources and established institutions have been at the core.
"In my experience playing in South Africa between 1995 and 2000, guys were always professionally managed and coached.
"Provincial cricket was also the only show in town during the apartheid era. Incredible rivalries developed as a result when some of the game's greats were still involved, like Clive Rice, Mike Procter and Peter Kirsten.
"Many top players come from probably half a dozen main schools, even post-apartheid. There has never been any lack of motivation, with players generally possessing a regimented work ethic. The difference now is that a huge emphasis is placed on players of colour being promoted in line with the aspirations of the new South Africa.
"The resourcing is huge, too. Just this week, I was walking in Johannesburg's northern suburb of Morningside and looked across the road to the private school Redhill. It has facilities a provincial centre in New Zealand would be proud of.
"Compare that to New Zealand where fields always face the difficulty of being dual code. They are generally recovering from rugby use by the time the cricket season starts in October."
O'Donnell spent 17 years in South Africa starting in 1985 as an assistant coach with Eastern Province under former New Zealand coach David Trist and latterly as coach of Gauteng. He helped those teams win numerous championships. Like Rutherford, who captained his Gauteng team to the provincial four-day championship in 2000, O'Donnell witnessed the strength of the South African system first-hand.
"They had a number of advantages, starting with the playing tiers. They had an in-depth school and club structure, a national academy and a great university system; the universities were a key nursery for the provinces in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"Players would often go to universities to establish themselves in a preferred sport during their two years of compulsory military training. I can remember one [future South African] player, Dave Callaghan, being in charge of a roller at the national academy during that time, which was a damn sight better than being on the front line in Angola."
O'Donnell also pinpoints their facilities, climate and contracting system as vital cogs: "Take the University of Port Elizabeth [now Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University] in Eastern Province. They had five separate fields and 25 grass wickets. I also think of the time I was with New Zealand at the Champions Trophy [in 2009] and we trained at the national academy in Pretoria. They had wall-to-wall grass practice wickets across an entire field.
"All six of the current franchises have test and one-day international venues, all of them have lights to develop players for internationals. Players are also regularly in action on the highveld where the ball can really travel on hard, fast wickets."
O'Donnell says provincial players are on 12-month full-time professional contracts: "That gives provinces control of the players year-round and they organise significant tours to the likes of Australia and England."
Reid was coach and manager of Northern Transvaal during 1981-92 and even managed the South African side which took on the Kim Hughes-led rebel Australians in the mid-1980s.
Reid puts their system's success down to discipline and investment.
"A huge population helps, as do the weather and facilities, but the school and club system was prominent and the recruitment [during the apartheid era] of lots of English coaches.
"Their schoolboys were more disciplined than ours and it tended to show with their application in later years."
