Dolphins fast bowler Mathew Pillans signed a three-year deal for Surrey in 2016, quickening fears that South Africa was suffering a talent drain because of transformation policies and the greater financial rewards available in English professional cricket. Pillans joined Surrey the day after a former South Africa Under-19 player Conor McKerr also made the trip.

Pillans insisted he had ambitions to play for England even though he would be 31 before he had fulfilled the seven-year residential requirement.

His debut season was strikingly unexceptional. He played four Championship matches, bowled 93 overs but was still awaiting his first wicket at the season's end. Three wickets in the limited-overs formats were his only reward.

Pillans was schooled in Pretoria and played for the University of Pretoria team before moving to Kwa-Zulu Natal in 2013, when he could not find a regular place at Northerns. He featured sporadically for the Dolphins but played more regularly in the amateur Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland team in 2015/16. He took nine wickets at 26.33 in two first-class games for the Dolphins.

The previous season, it seemed Pillans had earned the right to a more regular place in the franchise team when he finished as the seventh-highest wicket-taker overall in the first-class competition and as the Dolphins' best performing quick. He took 29 wickets at 23.79, which included a ten-for against the Knights. Lance Klusener, coach of Dolphins at the time, described him as a bowler who could "run in all day for you" but he still found himself on the sidelines.

Used by Surrey primarily as a T20 fill-in, he joined Yorkshire on loan in 2018, ahead of a permanent transfer, to seek further more regular opportunities.
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