Mattheus Hendrik "Riki" Wessels (born 12 November 1985) is an Australian-English

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 most recently played for

Worcestershire County Cricket Club Worcestershire 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 Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebranded ...

. A right-handed batsman and

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 ...

, Wessels has played for

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

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 ...

and

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, and also for the

Mid West Rhinos The Mid West Rhinos is one of the four cricket Zimbabwean cricket franchises. They are a first-class cricket team, based in Midlands Province and the Mashonaland West area. They play their home matches at Kwekwe Sports Club in Kwekwe. History ...

in Zimbabwe and the

Sydney Sixers The Sydney Sixers are an Australian professional franchise men's cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League (BBL). Along with the Sydney Thunder, the Sixers are the successors of the New ...

in Australia. He is the son of former

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 ...

n captain

Kepler Wessels Kepler Christoffel Wessels (born 14 September 1957) is a South African-Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. Since retiring he has been a lawn bowls competitor. He ...

, who also played 24 Test matches for

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 ...

Early life

Wessels was born in Queensland, Australia, where his father was playing domestic cricket at the time. After Kepler decided to return to South Africa, Riki grew up in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

. Cricket was not an automatic choice for him, as he was also a keen

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

player, but at 18 he made the decision to pursue a cricket career in England.

Cricket career

In 2004, Wessels joined the staff at

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club 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 ...

where he impressed in the second eleven producing several noticeable scores. This led to him being selected for the MCC in 2004 and in the first team of Nottinghamshire for the start of the 2011 season. In 2004, he established himself as a first class player, and scored his first

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

at the age of 19 against

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_ ...

. In 2007, he became eligible to play 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 ...

, which is what he wanted to do from an early age. Being a keen

player (playing for Northampton Lions and the

University of Northampton , mottoeng = Let us not be ignorant , established = 2005 (gained University status) 1975 (Nene College established) , type = Public , endowment = £0.95 m (2015) , chancellor = Richard Coles , vice_chancellor = ...

teams) helps him to play a variety of shots including the reverse sweep for which he is well known. He is a fairly attacking player especially in

one-day cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

, where he made one century to date. On 7 November 2008, Wessels signed a contract extension along with fellow Northamptonshire

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 ...

Niall O'Brien, keeping Riki at the club until 2010. He also turned out for

Nondescripts Cricket Club Nondescripts Cricket Club (also known by its initials NCC) is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The team plays at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground. History The club was founded in 1888. The name "Nondescripts" is derived ...

in Sri Lanka during the English off-season between 2008 and 2010. Wessels signed for

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Nottinghamshire 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 Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called the ...

for the 2011 season, where he plies his trade as a specialist batsman. He was signed as a specialist batsman by the Sydney Sixers in the 2014–15

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

tournament in Australia. He now plays his cricket in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. For the 1 of the most historic sides around Longton Cricket Club.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wessels, Riki 1985 births Living people Australian cricketers Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom English sportspeople of South African descent Northamptonshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Nondescripts Cricket Club cricketers Mid West Rhinos cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Khulna Royal Bengals cricketers Abahani Limited cricketers Sydney Sixers cricketers Karachi Kings cricketers Khulna Tigers cricketers Peshawar Zalmi cricketers Kandahar Knights cricketers Lahore Qalandars cricketers Worcestershire cricketers