Johannes Albertus Morkel (born 10 June 1981), better known as Albie Morkel, is a former South African cricketer. He is an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

who bowls right-arm medium fast and bats left-handed. He was earmarked as the new Lance Klusener from an early age and is famous for his six hitting abilities. Albie has a younger brother,

Morné Morkel Morné Morkel (born 6 October 1984) is a South African former cricketer who played international cricket between 2006 and 2018. He is a right-arm fast bowler and lower order left-handed batsman. Morkel made his Test match debut in 2006 and w ...

, who also played international cricket for South Africa while his father Albert played provincial cricket in South Africa. He has a particularly impressive first class record, with a batting average of 44.0 and a bowling average of 29.0. In January 2019, he retired from all forms of cricket. Currently he is the assistant coach of the

Namibia national cricket team The Namibia national cricket team, nicknamed the Eagles, is the men's team that represents the Republic of Namibia in international cricket. It is organised by Cricket Namibia which became an associate member of the International Cricket Cou ...

which qualified for 2020 ICC T20 World Cup in Australia on 29th Oct 2019.

Career

First-class

His

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

was quite impressive in his first seasons in

first class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, as he burst onto the scene with six for 36 for Easterns against Griqualand West, but in the 2004/05 season he was expected to take more of the bowling effort for the Titans, but took only 20 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 40.65. However, that coincided with an improvement in his

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

, as he made his first double century of his career, with 204 not out against Western Province Boland. During the 2008 summer season Morkel played for

Durham County Cricket Club Durham County Cricket Club (rebranded as Durham Cricket in February 2019) is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Durham. Founded in 1882, Du ...

in the North East of England along with fellow South African

Shaun Pollock Shaun Maclean Pollock OIS (born 16 July 1973) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who was captain in all formats of the game. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers and allrounders of all time. A genu ...

mainly in the Twenty20 Cup competition. He was dropped from the national team for the tour of the West indies, opening the door for David Miller and others. In 2012, Morkel was confirmed as

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

's second overseas player alongside

Chris Gayle Christopher Henry Gayle, OD (born 21 September 1979) is a Jamaican cricketer who has been playing international cricket for the West Indies since 1999. A destructive batter, Gayle is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen to have play ...

Roelof van der Merwe Roelof Erasmus van der Merwe (born 31 December 1984) is a Dutch-South African professional cricketer who has played internationally for both South Africa and the Netherlands, one of the few players to represent more than one international team ...

was expected to be retained by Somerset but it was expected that a work permit would not be granted. He joined Derbyshire in 2013 as an overseas player for their

Friends Life t20 The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

campaign.

International

His statistics on his international debut tour to New Zealand were not very impressive, as he got two wickets at the cost of 48 runs apiece, but he did get five wickets quite cheaply on

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

's tour of South Africa. Nevertheless, Morkel was picked for the Africa squad to play Asia in the

2005 Afro-Asia Cup The Afro-Asia Cup was a cricket competition played for the first time in 2005 and which is intended to run for at least three years. The idea was to raise money for the Asian Cricket Council and the African Cricket Association, and the whole ventur ...

, but withdrew due to injury. He appeared however for Africa the following series, in 2007, and made history in the second game when he opened the bowling with his brother Morné, the first time two brothers have done so in ODI cricket. In 2009 he secured two-man-of-the-match accolades against Australia in the Commonwealth Series down under, as well as the Man of the Series accolade for the One Day Internationals. He was promoted to the

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

side for the third Test of the home series against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2008/09, replacing his brother Morné in the side.

T20 franchise cricket

Albie played for the

Chennai Super Kings Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...

since the inaugural season of the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

where he had a very successful tournament as an all-rounder. He is one of the regular names in the overseas four of the playing XI. Morkel's big-hitting abilities and consistent bowling performances has been one of the key reasons of the Super Kings' successful run in the

. In the 2010 IPL, he struck a record third-wicket partnership in the tournament along with

Murali Vijay Murali Vijay (born 1 April 1984) is an Indian international cricketer who plays as a right-handed opening batsman. He was a regular member of the Indian Test team until 2018 and plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic first-class cricket. After fail ...

against the

Rajasthan Royals Rajasthan Royals (often abbreviated as RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Ma ...

. At the 2012 Indian Premier League, he was the winner of the Super Sixes tournament, with a distance of 105m. Morkel was retained by Chennai for the fourth edition of the

. On 12 April 2012, in the Chepauk stadium at Chennai, he hit 28 runs in one over of

Virat Kohli Virat Kohli (; born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer and former captain of the India national cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Kohli plays as a right-handed Batting (cricket), batte ...

's bowling which ultimately brought victory to Chennai Super Kings from a no win position after chasing a massive total of 206 in the match against

Royal Challengers Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore (often abbreviated as RCB) are a franchise cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was founded in 2008 by United Spirits and named after the company's liquor b ...

. Such exploits with the bat and his useful bowling gained him immense popularity and recognition and made him a household name among the Super Kings' fans. He was purchased by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹2,40,00,000 ahead of the 2014 season. He was purchased by the

Delhi Daredevils Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils) are a franchise cricket team based out of Delhi in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadiu ...

for ₹30,00,000 ahead of the 2015 season. On 9 April 2015 he hit 73 runs off 55 balls against his former team the

with eight fours and one six at Chennai. Delhi in the end fell short by one run in a close game. He represented

Rising Pune Supergiant Rising Pune Supergiant (often abbreviated as RPS) was a franchise cricket team based in Pune, Maharashtra, that played in the Indian Premier League in 2016 and as a finalist in 2017. It was the second team representing Pune after Pune Warriors ...

for the 2016 Indian Premier League season. In October 2018, he was named in

Durban Heat Durban Heat were a franchise team of the South African Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 cricket tournament. The team were based at the Kingsmead Cricket Ground in Durban. Durban Heat played in the first two editions of the MLS in 2018 Mzansi Su ...

's squad for the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the

Mzansi Super League The Mzansi Super League (MSL) was a Twenty20 cricket (T20) franchise league held in South Africa. The competition was established in 2018 by Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a replacement for the failed T20 Global League, but only two editions wer ...

T20 tournament.

Personal life

Albie hails from an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

family, who are big cricket fans. Albie was born to Albert and Mariana Morkel as the second of three children;

is the youngest; his older brother, Malan also played cricket. Albie is married to his childhood crush, Marthmari (née Groenewald). Their son, Albertus Johannes "AJ" Morkel was born on 1 December 2009 sharing his birthday with new

West Indies Cricket Team The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly Commonwealth Caribbean, English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West I ...

Test captain Kraigg Braithwaite and the their daughter Cara Morkel was born on 4 June 2011

The family lives in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. Prior to marriage, he used to live with his brother Morné and teammate

AB de Villiers Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a former South African international cricketer. AB de Villiers was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wi ...

References

External links

*
Albie Morkel
s profile page on Wisden *
Albbie morkel Royal Challenger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morkel, Albie 1981 births Living people Afrikaner people People from Vereeniging Sportspeople from Gauteng University of Pretoria cricketers South African cricketers South Africa Test cricketers South Africa One Day International cricketers South Africa Twenty20 International cricketers ACA African XI One Day International cricketers Chennai Super Kings cricketers Delhi Capitals cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Durban Heat cricketers Durham cricketers Easterns cricketers Northerns cricketers Rising Pune Supergiant cricketers Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketers Somerset cricketers Saint Lucia Kings cricketers Titans cricketers