Kepler Wessels

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Kepler Wessels : biography

14 September 1957 –

The semi-final against England took place on 22 March 1992 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. England reached a total of 252 for 6 (in 45 overs) and South Africa required a run-rate of 5.62 to win. With 13 balls left in the match, they required 22 more runs, when rain suddenly started pouring down over Sydney. Two overs (or 12 balls) were lost and when play resumed, South Africa’s new target was calculated by subtracting the amount of runs England had scored in their two least productive overs (both of which were maiden overs). South Africa thus required 22 runs off one ball. The last ball was played with batsman Brian MacMillan scoring a single, and South Africa lost the semi-final. The team did a lap of honour around the Sydney Cricket Ground, providing one of the most lasting images of the tournament.

1991/92 tour of the West Indies

South Africa narrowly lost to a West Indian team featuring such players as Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Desmond Haynes and Brian Lara. South Africa, under Wessels’ leadership, controlled most of the match but fell for 148 chasing 201 for victory in the final innings. Wessels contributed 59 and 74 in this Test.

1993/94 tour of Australia

During the 1993/94 international season, Wessels’ cricketing career reached full circle, as he captained the South African side in a tour to Australia. The first Test match of the tour, in Melbourne, was drawn. The second, and arguably most memorable, test was played out in front of a capacity crowd in Sydney. It turned out to be Wessels’ last match of the tour, following a hand injury during play. Shane Warne took seven wickets in the first innings and everything seemed lost for the South Africans. However, thanks to some heroic bowling and batting by the visitors, Australia was eventually set a winning target of 117 runs in the second innings. The home side was bowled out for 110 runs, and South Africa won their first Test match against Australia since 1969. Wessels was forced to return to South Africa because of his injury, thus missing out on the rest of the tour. He was, however, immediately reinstated as captain for the home series against Australia. He retired after the series, handing over the reins to teammate Hansie Cronje.

Criticism

Wessels was the subject of much criticism during his cricket career, especially from his country of birth, South Africa. It ranged from doubts over his ability to play one-day cricket, his "ugly" stancehttp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19821129&id=TiRVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QJQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2957,6596181 to his style of captaining as well as his rather serious approach to the game.

Ability to play one-day cricket

Wessels was, at times, heavily criticised for his alleged inability to play one-day cricket. Although he played 109 One Day Internationals for both Australia and South Africa, he averaged only 34.35, at a strike rate of 55.3, and scored only one ODI century in his career.

From the Channel Nine commentary box, Tony Greig went as far as to say that Wessels "went through a period when his temperament was totally against everything that one-day cricket stood for." Wessels pointed out that he fulfilled the anchor role in the side and that it was his job to bat throughout an innings. Former Australian captain and teammate Kim Hughes, had publicly supported Wessels on this fact, saying: "Kepler hits so many boundaries that he is always going to score enough runs and, even in one-day cricket, you need someone who can anchor the innings. He’s the bloke I want in that role."

Despite the criticism, Wessels collected many player’s accolades during his ODI career, including the "Man of the Series" award during the 1983 ODI series against the West Indies, as well as the "Man of the Match" award for his 81 not out against Australia in the 1992 World Cup. He was never dismissed for a duck during his 105 ODI innings; no other retired player can boast this feat for a career longer than 40 innings.ESPN Cricinfo , Retrieved 15 January 2011.

Captaincy

During the 1989 Currie Cup final in Port Elizabeth, Wessels angered South African cricket authorities by letting his Eastern Province side bat deep into the third day, without declaring the first innings closed. He was accused of killing the game and ruining what was supposed to be the annual showpiece of South African cricket, by not giving his opponents, Transvaal, a fair chance at batting. However, the decision proved to be correct from an Eastern Province point of view, as the home side managed to bowl Transvaal out twice by the fifth day, thereby winning by an innings and 103 runs.

As captain of the national side, Wessels was similarly criticised for playing too conservatively in South Africa’s first test series since readmission into international cricket. Although South Africa won the home series against India by 1–0, fans and critics sharpened their pencils and attacked the captain mercilessly for his team’s apparent lack of passion and ambition. The fourth test in Cape Town, in particular, was condemned across the cricketing world. The two teams scored a total of 795 runs in 433.4 overs, at an average of only 1.83 runs per over and ended in a draw. Wessels commented on the criticism in his biography, saying: "It was almost as if they thought we should win every series 4–0. They simply don’t understand that modern Test cricket is tough and competitive."