3 South African Cricketers who Played Australian Cricket
Playing serious cricketers is no fun; it requires plenty of effort and hard work to play for a national team. There are commitments and years of practice for one to become an international-level cricketer.
Because of various reasons, some cricketers born in one country play cricket for a different country.
Let us take an example of South Africa, where many of their cricketers play for other countries.
In this article, we shall discuss here three such famous cricketers born in South African but played for Australia.
1. Marnus Labuschagne
Marnus Labuschagne is an all-rounder who plays for Australia. Marnus Labuschagne is a right arm occasional spinner. He has taken 12 wickets in test matches. He is a regular member of the Australian team and for the Queensland cricket team. He has played 13 ODI and has scored 473 runs with 1 hundred and 3 fifties.
Marnus Labuschagne is South African born but moved to Australia at a young age. His highest score in tests is 251 and 148 in ODIs. Labuschagne scored 1,512 runs in 15 Test matches. He has become an impressive star of the Australian team.
28 years old Marnus Labuschagne is married to Rebekah. She cheers her husband during his cricketing assignments and is often seen in the stands.
Marnus Labuschagne is known better for his silk stroke play; at times he surprises his opponent with bouncers while bowling leg-spin. He is currently playing for Brisbane Heats in the Big Bash League (BBL). He recently helped BBL to get onto a playoff spot. He became the first player in BBL history to score 40 plus runs and also take three wickets in the same game.
2. Michael Gertges Neser
Michael Gertges Neser, South Africa born shifted to Australia’s Gold Coast at a young age. He is a right-arm medium pacer. He now represents Queensland and the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League in Australia. In June 2018, he made his international debut for the national team.
Neser took four wickets on an opening day of his debut against Western Australia.
Neser signed a contract with Queensland in 2011 to play cricket. However, due to frequent injuries, Neser could not find a permanent place in Queensland’s team. An injury prevented Neser from playing entirety for BBL, and Neser could not attain his peak form as yet.
In May 2018, he played for Australia in the One Day International (ODI) squad against England.
In September 2018, though he was nominated for Australia’s Test squad to play against Pakistan, he did not play.
Neser was nominated for the Australia’s Test squad to play against India and against South Africa during November 2020 and January 2021 respectively.
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3. Kepler Christoffel Wessels
Kepler Christoffel Wessels is a South African-Australian and is presently a cricket commentator. He played 24 test cricket matches for Australia and retired. He is an opening batsman and plays left-handed.
Wessels showed exceptional sporting talent in the games of swimming, tennis etc. At the age of 12, Wessels switched over to cricket. Volsteedt coached Wessels during his playing days for the school’s first team. Wessels participated in cricket that became his main activity during summer.
The Australian WSC side was in serious need of a reliable opening batsman and Packer saw in Wessels to fill in that spot. In the late 1970s, he was drafted to play for the Australian World Series Cricket Team (WSC) by Kerry Packer. He joined the Australian WSC team to take advantage of the better compensation and playing conditions compared to South Africa.
In November 1985, Wessels played his last match for Australia opposing New Zealand. Wessels alone resisted the distressing bowling of Richard Hadlee. He scored 70 runs in the first innings and 3 runs in the final innings. Australia faced a massive defeat against New Zealand. He was disappointed with the performance of his team and he announced his retirement.
In 2008, he coached the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He returned to South Africa to coaching budding cricketers.
Players have found success in different countries and, thus also famous in their country.
Main Image Source: Pixabay
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