Martin van Jaarsveld (born 18 June 1974) is a former South African

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 str ...

er who played nine Tests and eleven One Day Internationals for

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

between 2002 and 2004. Van Jaarsveld is a specialist middle-order batsman, though he has two wickets in One Day International cricket, including England opening batsman

Marcus Trescothick Marcus Edward Trescothick (born 25 December 1975) is an English former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals.Jacques Kallis Jacques Henry Kallis (born 16 October 1975) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and as South Africa's greatest batsman ever, he is a right-handed batsman and righ ...

and

Jacques Rudolph Jacobus Andries "Jacques" Rudolph (born 4 May 1981) is a former South African cricketer who played for Glamorgan and in South Africa with Titans. He attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, a popular and renowned public school located in Pretoria ...

International career

He got his international debut following his performances in the 2001–02 season, where he made 1,268 runs at a

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 74.58, beginning his international career with the home series against

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

in 2002–03, though in a ten-wicket win at Benoni, he made no contribution with bat or ball. He top-scored in the next match, however, making 42, and also dismissed

Talha Jubair Talha Jubair ( bn, তালহা জুবায়ের) (born 10 December 1985) is a Bangladeshi 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 ...

with his first ball in international cricket to end the innings. In the two Tests, he made 50 runs in two innings, and was dismissed once, lbw to

Tapash Baisya Tapash Baisya ( bn, তাপস বৈশ্য) (born 25 December 1982) is a former Bangladeshi international cricketer. Tapash Baisya took 36 Test wickets, although they came at a bowling average of nearly 60. Nevertheless, he has taken the ...

. However, after scoring three runs against Sri Lanka in the first match of a two-Test series, he was left out as

Herschelle Gibbs Herschelle Herman Gibbs (born 23 February 1974) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all formats of the game for fourteen years. A right-handed batsman, mostly opened the batting, Gibbs became the first player to hi ...

recovered from a back injury, and only returned for the 2003

NatWest Series The NatWest Series is the name used for One Day International cricket tournaments held in England since 2000. The tournaments are sponsored by the National Westminster Bank. 2000 to 2005: triangular series The original format of the NatWest Seri ...

. South Africa finished second at the three-team tournament, but van Jaarsveld only passed 20 once, ending with 82 runs at an average of 20.50, and he was left out of the squad to tour

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in 2003–04. He played two Tests in that season, making a maiden Test half-century with 73 against West Indies after Gary Kirsten pulled out, and replacing

Neil McKenzie Neil Douglas McKenzie (born 24 November 1975) is a South African former cricketer, who played all three forms of the game. He was a right-handed opening batsman who played for South Africa, making his first appearance in 2000. He is currently t ...

for the final Test in

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 ...

, making 59 and 13 not out in a nine-wicket win. Van Jaarsveld also went on tour to Sri Lanka in 2004, but despite a first-innings 51 in the second Test, South Africa lost that match by 313 runs to lose the series. However, he was given one last chance in the One Day International team at the 2004 Champions Trophy, replacing

Jean-Paul Duminy Jean-Paul Duminy (born 14 April 1984), more commonly known as JP Duminy, is a South African cricket commentator, and former international cricketer. He was vice-captain of the South Africa Twenty20 team. He is a left-handed batsman and a rig ...

after a 0–5 ODI-series loss in Sri Lanka. After not batting against

, van Jaarsveld made a golden duck in South Africa's second and last match, smashing a ball from

Ian Bradshaw Ian David Russell Bradshaw (born 9 July 1974) is a former Barbadian cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team as a left-arm fast bowler in all three formats of the game. In September 2004, Bradshaw was a member of the West Indies t ...

Daren Powell Daren Brent Lyle Powell (born 15 April 1978) is a former West Indian international cricketer who played first-class cricket for Jamaica. As a right-arm fast medium bowler, he has played Test matches and One Day Internationals (ODI) for the W ...

in a five-wicket loss to the eventual champions

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. He played two more Tests, however – making 15 runs in two innings (out of the South Africans' total of 679) in a draw at

Green Park Stadium Green Park Stadium is an international standards cricket stadium of Kanpur, India. Its seating capacity is 32,000 seats. It is the home ground of Uttar Pradesh cricket team. This arena is an International Test match venue. Green Park is under ...

, Kanpur before he was dropped for

Hashim Amla Hashim Mahomed Amla OIS (born 31 March 1983) is a South African former international cricketer who played for South Africa in all three formats of the game. Amla holds the record for being the fastest ever to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 ...

. He came back for the second Test of five 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 ...

, but a first-innings 1 did not impress the selectors, though he did make 49 off 52 balls in the second innings as South Africa attempted a chase of 378 in 86 overs.

Kolpak deal and international retirement

In 2005, van Jaarsveld retired from international cricket, choosing instead to become a Kolpak player in English county cricket for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. Van Jaarsveld claimed that he was making "a decision about what asbest for islong-term future". He made the highest score for Kent in the 2005 season, with 262

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

against Glamorgan, but was third in the run-scoring tables with 1,198 runs, behind former

Test player Robert Key and 29-year-old Darren Stevens. He returned to South African domestic cricket for the 2005–06 season, playing for the Benoni

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

and making 211 runs in five SuperSport Series games at an average lower than five other Titans players.

References

* * ''Wisden Cricketer's Almanack'' 2003
Batsman Van Jaarsveld joins Kent
from BBC {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Jaarsveld, Martin 1974 births Living people Kent cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Northerns cricketers South African cricketers South Africa One Day International cricketers South Africa Test cricketers Suffolk cricketers Titans cricketers Glamorgan cricketers