Roger Telemachus

A stellar former South African fast bowler, Roger Telemachus was a pacer during an era when Protean fast bowling was spearheaded by men like Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Makhaya Ntini, and Andre Nel.

In his early cricketing days, Roger played for Boland and Western Province Colts. Over the years, he picked up wickets regularly for Boland, and in five years he had 170 wickets from 78 matches across formats, with five five-wicket hauls, and was selected in the South African squad for their series against the touring Pakistan side. He picked two prized wickets on his debut of Aamer Sohail and Waqar Younis and bowled brilliantly at death.

Telemachus went on to play 37 ODIs for South Africa. Even though he used to pick up regular wickets, Roger never had one of those brilliant performances which could make him a regular in the side. Roger’s career was more famous for controversies. In the 2000 ICC Knock-Out game, Telemachus was handed a suspension for misconduct after he collided with Sourav Ganguly and got into a heated debate.

After South Africa’s dismal performance in the 2003 World Cup, Telemachus was later withdrawn from the South African A squad because he was yet to recover from the nasty shoulder injury which he suffered in 1998. In 2006, Telemachus made his T20I debut. However, he played only three T20Is for South Africa. The year 2006 marked the end of Telemachus’s international career. Returning back to domestic cricket, he played a handful of games for the Eagles. He then went on to play for the Cape Cobras in the shortest format and hung up his boot in 2009.

(As of April 2021)