Nico Boje ( ; born 20 March 1973) is a South African former

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 in 43

Tests 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), ...

, 115

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s and single

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

for South Africa. Boje was a member of Africa XI team for

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 ...

. He is the first cap of Twenty20 Internationals for South Africa as well. He attended Grey College in Bloemfontein. He is currently coaching the

Knights cricket team The ITEC Knights are a Division 1 cricket team representing the province of Free State in South African domestic competitions. The Knights take part in the CSA 4-Day Series first-class competition, the Momentum One-Day Cup and the Mzansi ...

in the Free State,

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 ...

. His brother, Eduard Boje, also played

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 ...

Domestic career

Northamptonshire

Boje joined English side

Northamptonshire CCC Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northa ...

for the last few weeks of the 2007 season as a replacement overseas player for Johan Van der Wath. A few days later it was announced that he would be joining the breakaway

Indian Cricket League The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operated between 2007 and 2009 in India. Its two seasons included tournaments between four international teams (World XI, India, Pakistan ...

. In 2008, the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

David Sales David John Grimwood Sales (born 3 December 1977) is an English cricket player who has played for the Northamptonshire, England A and Wellington cricket teams. Domestic career Sales was educated at Caterham School, an independent school in Ca ...

, resigned and Boje took over the role as

for

. In that season, he scored his highest ever

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 ...

score of 226*. He signed a new one-year contract on 3 September 2009 which saw him lead the club through the 2010 season.

International career

Boje's international career began in 1995 against

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 ...

, and although he was in and out of the team due to injuries he established himself as South Africa's first choice

spin bowler Spin bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, in which the ball is delivered slowly but with the potential to deviate sharply after bouncing. The bowler is referred to as a spinner. Purpose The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ...

. Due to the amount of

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 ...

s in the South African team, Boje usually batted at eight or nine in the batting order, despite a first class

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 32 and both Test and ODI averages around 26, which was the highest for a regular number nine in Test cricket in the 2000s. However, despite the reasonably high average he never hit a Test century, although did make two ODI centuries against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 2000–01. And also in that 6 match ODI series, he amassed 355 runs in 6 innings and broke the record for scoring the most runs in a 6 match bilateral ODI series In December 2006, Boje announced his retirement from international cricket, effective immediately. He finished his career with exactly 100 Test wickets, the wicket of

Mahela Jayawardene Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene ( si, දෙනගමගේ ප්‍රබෝත් මහේල ද සිල්වා ජයවර්ධන; born 27 May 1977) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who is the current consultant coach ...

in his final Test brought up his milestone.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boje, Nicky 1973 births ACA African XI One Day International cricketers Afrikaner people Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Knights cricketers Free State cricketers ICL World XI cricketers Hyderabad Heroes cricketers Living people Nottinghamshire cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Northamptonshire cricket captains Cricketers from Bloemfontein South African cricketers South African cricket captains South Africa One Day International cricketers South Africa Test cricketers South Africa Twenty20 International cricketers Warriors cricketers Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup South African cricket coaches Commonwealth Games medallists in cricket