Cornelius Francoius Kruger van Wyk (born 7 February 1980) is a former 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 plays for the

Central Districts Stags The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

. He is a

wicketkeeper 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 ...

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 ...

. He has played professionally in South Africa and New Zealand, and at club level in Scotland. He attended

Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (also known as Affies), is a public Afrikaans medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Elandspoort in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The school was founded in 1920 by Jan Joubert and ...

(Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a popular and renowned public school located in Pretoria.

Domestic career

Born and raised in South Africa, van Wyk started his first class career with Northerns in 2000/01 season. However, any hope of breaking into the South African team was diminished by

Mark Boucher Mark Verdon Boucher (born 3 December 1976) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. Boucher is regarded as one of the best wicket-keeper batsmen of all time, and holds the record for the ...

's long-term hold on the position. He moved to New Zealand on the encouragement of his coach, and started playing for the

Canterbury Wizards Canterbury is a first-class cricket team based in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is one of six teams that compete in senior New Zealand Cricket competitions and has been the second most successful domestic team in New Zealand history. They compete ...

from the 2006/07 season. Van Wyk captained the Canterbury Wizards in the 2008 season in which they won the first class State Championship title. He was awarded the Canterbury Wizards player of the year for the 2007/8 season. He captained the Wizards until 2010, when he signed for the

. In the New Zealand winter he has played professionally in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

for West Lothian County Cricket Association who have since been renamed Linlithgow Cricket Club.

International career

On 16 January 2012, van Wyk was named in the New Zealand cricket squad to play Zimbabwe in a one-off test match commencing 26 January 2012. Kruger van Wyk was named to make his test debut later that summer against his former country after

BJ Watling Bradley-John Watling (born 9 July 1985), known as BJ Watling, is a South African-born former New Zealand international cricketer who has represented Northern Districts since December 2004. He made his Test debut in December 2009 and eight month ...

was ruled out with a hip injury. He holds the record for being the shortest test cricketer at 1.45m.

Retirement

In December 2015, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, to take up the role of Director of Cricket at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

's TuksCricket Academy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Wyk, Kruger 1980 births Living people Canterbury cricketers Central Districts cricketers Northerns cricketers Titans cricketers New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers South African emigrants to New Zealand South African cricketers Wicket-keepers