Morne van Wyk

Morne Van Wyk is an attacking batsman from Bloemfontein, South Africa who also doubles up as a wicketkeeper for the teams he represents, one amongst them being South Africa A and in the past, the primary side as well. Another one of those cricketers who has represented his country in some other sport (he was part of the South Africa U-16 Hockey squad), he is a wicketkeeper by force rather than by choice, but thanks to a natural ability, he is used as a full time glovesman.

Van Wyk was first introduced in South Africa's ODI side against England at Lord's in 2003. His ODI debut was surely not a memorable one, for he made just 17 and the team was all out for 107 in 32 overs. But despite that, he was seen as someone who would take over the mantle of keeping wickets once Mark Boucher retired. Waiting in the wings for a person who played non stop for the country comes with its own baggage and to this date, Van Wyk has just played 13 ODIs. Now, he finds himself on the wrong side of 30 and AB de Villiers has been named as wicket keeper as well as the captain of the ODI squad. But he still is a regular for the South Africa A side and displayed his skills opening the batting for Kolkata Knight riders in the Indian Premier League. He is already in the T20 record books, having scored the fastest fifty by a South African against India, which came of just 24 balls. Surely, he is an exciting prospect for the shortest format of the game.

Van Wyk captained the Dolphins in the 2014 Ram Slam T20 Challenge. He had a successful campaign as he led from the front to win them the final against Cape Cobras. He was named the Batsman of the Match for his 47.

Did you know: He reportedly took a sleeping pill instead of a vitamin pill before the crucial World Cup tie against India in Nagpur in 2011. The team spokesman later said that Van Wyk struggled to stay awake during the match which may have led to his dropping 3 simple catches behind the wicket.

By Siddharth Prabhakar

As of April 2014