GC Viljoen (born 6 March 1989), known as Hardus Viljoen,Borland K (2016
Viljoen desperate to earn a place in the national team
, '' The Citizen'', 4 July 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016. is a South African professional

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. Viljoen played for

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

in domestic cricket and made one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

appearance for the South Africa national team. He is a right-arm fast bowler.

Career

Viljoen was called up to the South African squad for the first time on the last day of 2015 as cover for Kyle Abbott. He made his Test debut on 14 January 2016 against

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 ...

, taking the wicket of England captain

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English cricketer who plays for Essex County Cricket Club, and played for England in all international formats from 2006 to 2018. A former captain of the England Test and One-Day Intern ...

with his first ball in Test cricket, the 20th player to achieve this feat. Viljoen joined

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

for a short spell 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 ...

in August 2016, playing in the final four matches of the

2016 County Championship The 2016 County Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2016 Specsavers County Championship), was the 117th cricket County Championship season. It was announced in March 2016 that the 2017 season would feature only eight teams in Divi ...

season. He made his

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

debut on 23 August against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, taking five wickets on the first day of the match.Ehantharajah V (2016
Viljoen makes immediate impact for Kent

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 23 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016. At the end of the season Kent made a contract offer to Viljoen but were unwilling to match a more lucrative offer made by

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

who signed the player on a three-year Kolpak contract in December 2016.Hardus Viljoen: Derbyshire sign South Africa bowler under Kolpak ruling

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, 7 December 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2019. After playing for the county for two seasons the contract was terminated "by mutual consent"Hardus Viljoen: Derbyshire fast bowler leaves by mutual consent

, 24 January 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019. in January 2019, with Viljoen signing in June to play for Kent in the 2019 t20 Blast.Hardus Viljoen: Kent Spitfires re-sign South African paceman for T20 Blast

, 5 June 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019. In December 2018, he was bought by the

Kings XI Punjab Punjab Kings (PBKS) are a franchise cricket team based in Mohali, Punjab, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Established in 2008 as the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), the franchise is jointly owned by Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia, Preity Zi ...

in the player auction for the 2019 Indian Premier League. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Rotterdam Rhinos in the inaugural edition of the

Euro T20 Slam The Euro T20 Slam is a planned professional Twenty20 cricket league. The first edition of the tournament was initially scheduled to start in August 2019, with matches to be held in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. It's launch has been post ...

cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the

Paarl Rocks Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

team for the

2019 Mzansi Super League The 2019 Mzansi Super League, also known as the MSL 2.0, was the second edition of the Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 (T20) franchise cricket tournament in South Africa. It started on 8 November and ended on 16 December 2019. Jozi Stars wer ...

tournament. In April 2021, he was named in Boland's squad, ahead of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa. In July 2022, he was signed by the

Jaffna Kings Jaffna Kings, formerly known as Jaffna Stallions, are a franchise cricket team which plays in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). On December 16, 2020, the team won the inaugural Lanka Premier League 2020 Championship and are the current title hold ...

for the third edition of the

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional cricket league in Sri Lanka in Twenty20 format contested every year by teams representing Sri Lankan cities from 2020. The league was founded by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 201 ...

Personal life

In December 2019, he married Rhemi Rynners, the sister of South African international cricketer

Faf du Plessis Francois "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and is among the best all-forma ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Viljoen, Hardus 1989 births Living people South African cricketers South Africa Test cricketers Titans cricketers Lions cricketers Easterns cricketers Kent cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Chittagong Vikings cricketers Punjab Kings cricketers Lahore Qalandars cricketers Multan Sultans cricketers Paarl Rocks cricketers