Zander de Bruyn

Zander de Bruyn was a three-Test wonder for South Africa whose elegance at the crease drew comparisons with former South Proteas captain Hansie Cronje. A batting-allrounder who was often tested against short-pitch bowling but when in full-flow, his crunching drives were a delight to watch and his handy medium pacer broke many cruising partnerships.

The Johannesburg-born emerged from the school level to play for the Transvaal cricket team (later called the Gauteng cricket team). However, his career really flew when the allrounder joined Easterns in 2002. In a year, de Bruyn found himself in the limelight when he scored record-breaking runs in the 2003–04 SuperSport Series. 

His emergence couldn’t be ignored by the national selectors and a 29-year-old de Bruyn made his Test debut against India to score a fluent 83 on debut. He was tested awfully in the following two Tests before he got dropped as the Proteas found a genius in Abraham Benjamin de Villiers and they never looked back. 

That was enough for De Bruyn to abandon international hopes and achieve big in county cricket as a Kolpak. He joined Worcestershire in 2005 without much success initially before moving to Somerset in 2008 where he established himself as an integral recruit before Surrey signed him in 2010. However, the South African ended his two-decade-long career with retirement in 2014. 

Seven years later, De Bruyn again stepped onto the cricket field as a player when he represented South Africa Legends during the Road Safety World Series in 2021.

(As of April 2021)