Lance Klusener

Lance Klusener (born 4 September 1971) is a former South African cricketer, more specifically an all-rounder. He is known for his aggressive batting and his fast-medium swing bowling. He is nicknamed "Zulu" because of his fluency in that language. Following his exploits at the 1999 World Cup for which he won the Player of the Tournament award, he topped the ICC ODI Batting rankings. His high strike rate and career ODI batting average of 41.10 places him among the ranks of South Africa's most accomplished one-day batsmen.

Career

Domestic career

Klusener played for KwaZulu-Natal (Nashua Dolphins) in the domestic level in South Africa between 1991 and 2004. In 2004, Northamptonshire County Cricket Club signed him on a contract running until late 2008. At Wantage Road he impressed with his fired-up seam bowling and his hard-hitting in the low middle-order. Due to family bereavements back home, it was announced that his contract with the county will not be renewed at the end of the 2008 season. In late 2007, he started playing in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 tournament in India for the Kolkata Tigers team.^[1]

International career

Klusener made his Test debut for South Africa against India in Calcutta during the second Test in 1996/97. Klusener, at the time playing primarily as a bowler, took some fearful hammering at the hands of Mohammad Azharuddin, who at one point hit him for five consecutive fours, in his first innings of his debut but returned career best figures of eight for 64 in the second.^[2]

Klusener will be remembered mainly for his contributions in One Day Internationals, in which he became feared as a hard hitting batsman and was voted as Man of the Tournament during the 1999 World Cup.He showed glimpses of his big-hitting in the years leading to the 1999 World Cup. His baseball-style backlift and thunderous hitting symbolised the tournament and his heroics nearly took South Africa to the final. He was also voted as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2000.

His international career has tapered off since then, due mainly to persistent ankle injuries, as well as a public dispute with the current South African captain Graeme Smith, who at a breakfast meeting shortly after his appointment to the captaincy described Klusener as a "disruptive force" to the younger players within the South African national cricket team, with the quote ending up in the South African press.^[3] However it seems that Klusener and Smith have patched up their differences.^[4][5]

1999 World Cup

In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, South Africa had progressed to the semi-finals, and Klusener till then had an excellent tournament, taking 17 wickets and scoring 250 runs (including two half centuries) in 8 matches and building a reputation as a hard-hitting batsman in tight situations.

He won four Man of the Match awards out of the nine matches South Africa played in the tournament.The four awards were consecutive with respect to South Africa's wins(one match in between was won by Zimbabwe). The only other South African to win this award in this same tournament was Jacques Kallis.

The second semi-final was played between Australia and South Africa in Edgbaston, England. Australia, having been put to bat, set a target of 214 for South Africa to chase in 50 overs. Klusener came into bat when South Africa were 175–6 in 44.5 overs, and by virtue of his big-hitting (along with support from other batsmen), South Africa entered the final over at 205/9, needing nine runs to win in with only one wicket remaining. The two men at the crease were Klusener (on strike) and Allan Donald.

Klusener scored consecutive fours in the first two balls of the over (bowled by Damien Fleming), levelling the scores and leaving South Africa with only 1 run to win in 4 balls with Klusener on strike. The third ball was a dot, and the fourth saw Klusener mis-hit his shot to mid-wicket fielder Mark Waugh. Klusener went for the run, although chances of a run-out were high and two balls were still remaining. However, Donald at the other end, keeping his eyes on the ball, did not see Klusener sprinting down the pitch and did not hear the call to run, and Klusener was almost at the bowler's end by the time Donald (who had also dropped his bat) began running. By then, Waugh had thrown the ball to Fleming, who rolled it to Adam Gilchrist who took the bails off at the other end, meaning Donald was run-out by some distance, thus ending the match with the scores level. However, a tie meant that Australia progressed to the final since they had beaten South Africa in the group stages of the tournament. As commentator Bill Lawry put it during the final ball:

"...this will be out surely – oh it's out, it's gonna be run out...oh, that is South Africa out – Donald did not run, I cannot believe it. Australia go into the World Cup Final – ridiculous running with two balls to go. Donald did not go, Klusener came – what a disappointing end for South Africa."

Australia went on to win the tournament, and although Klusener's heroics went in vain, he was voted the Player of the Series.^[6]

Coaching career

Klusener severed all of his ties with the Indian Cricket League in late 2009 and then completed a Level-three coaching course provided by Cricket South Africa in Spring 2010. Klusener confirmed he was in negotiations with the Bangladesh Cricket Board about becoming the team bowling coach. Klusener confirmed that negotiations are on-going^[7] However in early September 2010 the Bangladesh Cricket Board confirmed that they were still awaiting a response from Klusener.^[8] Lance Klusener has finally turned down the offer to take over as Bangladesh's bowling coach, ending a prolonged period of speculation over his possible appointment. Klusener, who was in discussions to replace Sri Lanka's Champaka Ramanayake, was reportedly unable to convince his wife about a permanent move to Bangladesh.^[9]

In January 2012, he was appointed as the interim head coach (for the 2011–12 season) of the Dolphins, whom he represented in domestic cricket during his playing career.^[10]

Style of play

Klusener's batting averages are particularly notable for the peculiar fact that his ODI average is considerably higher than his Test average. This is a fair reflection of his aggressive temperament. This is also due to the fact that in ODI's he batted higher up the batting order than in tests.

List of International cricket Centuries

One Day International Centuries

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

One Day International Centuries of Lance Klusener

	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	103*	49	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1999
[2]	101*	64	Zimbabwe	Nairobi, Kenya	Gymkhana Club Ground	1999

See also

• List of South Africa Test cricketers who have taken five wickets on debut

References

External links

• Player profile: Lance Klusener from ESPNcricinfo
• Cricket Archive Player Profile

v t e South Africa squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Kirsten 2 Gibbs 3 Kallis 4 Cullinan 5 Cronje (c) 6 Benkenstein 7 Pollock 8 Rhodes 9 Boucher (wk) 10 Donald 11 Crookes 12 Dawson 13 Klusener 14 Elworthy 15 Boje Ntini was named in the original squad, but was replaced on 23 April 1999 by Dawson

v t e South Africa squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 1 Pollock (c) 2 Boucher 3 Boje 4 Dippenaar 5 Donald 6 Gibbs 7 Hall 8 Kallis 9 Kirsten 10 Klusener 11 Langeveldt 12 Ntini 13 Peterson 14 Rhodes 15 Zondeki 16 Smith Replacement for Rhodes