A useful fast-medium right-arm seamer and middle-order batsman, Justin Kemp was predicted by many to have a guaranteed international career ahead of him. He made his debut in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in 2000-01, taking 5 for 52 in the match and winning selection for the subsequent tour of the Caribbean.

A fortnight later, on his way to 188 in a domestic match, he smacked five sixes off one over, and the final ball fell two yards short of the man on the deep square-leg boundary. But in the West Indies he disappointed on the field and got in hot water when he admitted to smoking marijuana.

He played eight fairly ordinary ODIs the following season when his prospects were on the wane and he remained out of the reckoning until England came to visit in 2004-05. Filling a Lance Klusener-like role to perfection, he lumped 80 from 50 balls in the series clincher in East London, and in a five-match series at home against New Zealand later that year, Kemp began to look like the complete package. Kemp's crucial innings of 73 off 64 - complete with 3 sixes - and a 19-ball 30 to clinch the series in the third match played their in establishing him as one of the biggest and best hitters in the game, and he was duly named Man of the Series after those performances.

In February 2006, Kemp and fellow South African team-mate Andrew Hall returned to English county side Kent. After a successful few months, Kemp was released as South African authorities urged him to rest up ahead of a tour to Sri Lanka and the World Cup in 2007. A couple of good innings in the 2006 Champions Trophy preceded Kemp's maiden ODI hundred - an awe-inspiring unbeaten 100 against India at Cape Town in late November. His World Cup campaign, however, was a stop-start affair, as was the World Twenty20 and soon after the tournament he was dropped. He did not play international cricket again.

With the youngsters performing well Kemp found his return blocked and opted to take the popular Kolpak route into county cricket by signing a two-year deal with Kent. He joined the unofficial Indian Cricket League, played for the Hyderabad Heroes, quit the league in 2009 and was picked up by Chennai Super Kings in the 2010 IPL auction for US$100,000.

Kemp continued to play as a senior member of the Cape Cobras in the seasons that followed, playing first-class cricket until the 2014-15 summer. He announced his retirement at the end of the 2015-16 season.
Firdose Moonda