Craig Cachopa (born 17 January 1992) is a retired South African-born New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in English

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

at New Zealand domestic level. Cachopa was born in

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The cit ...

, in what is now

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

's Free State province. His family emigrated to New Zealand in 2002, and he and two older brothers,

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of te ...

(born 1986) and Bradley Cachopa (born 1988), have all played first-class cricket in New Zealand. A right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

and occasional

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

, Craig Cachopa debuted for the New Zealand under-19s at the age of 16, and later captained the side at the 2010 Under-19 World Cup, hosted by New Zealand. He made his first-class debut for Wellington during the 2011–12 season of the

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

, but switched to Auckland the following season. Playing for Auckland against Wellington during the 2013–14 season, he scored 203 runs, his highest first-class score and only

double century In cricket, a century is a score of 100 or more runs in a single innings by a batsman. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century ...

. Cachopa signed a two-year contract with Sussex, beginning with the 2014 English season, qualifying as a domestic player via a Portuguese passport. He has announced his intention to qualify for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and will consequently be regarded as an overseas player if he wishes to return to Auckland. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Auckland for the 2018–19 season. In September 2018, he was named as the captain of the

Auckland Aces The Auckland cricket team represent the Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side having won 28 Plunket Shield titles, ten ...

for the

2018 Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

. He was the leading run-scorer for Auckland in the

2018–19 Ford Trophy The 2018–19 Ford Trophy was the 48th season of The Ford Trophy, the List A cricket tournament in New Zealand. It was the eighth in a sponsorship deal between New Zealand Cricket and Ford Motor Company. Originally scheduled to take place betwe ...

, with 412 runs in eleven matches.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cachopa, Craig 1992 births Auckland cricketers Living people Sportspeople from Welkom New Zealand cricketers New Zealand people of Portuguese descent South African emigrants to New Zealand Sussex cricketers Wellington cricketers Naturalised citizens of New Zealand Wicket-keepers