Dirk Viljoen - a short biography

FULL NAME: Dirk Peter Viljoen
BORN: 11 March 1977, at Harare
MAJOR TEAMS: Young Mashonaland (1994/95-1995/96); Mashonaland (1996/97 1999/2000); Mashonaland A (2000/01); Midlands (2001/02 to date);
present club team Old Hararians.
KNOWN AS: Dirk Viljoen
BATTING STYLE: Left Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Slow Left Arm
OCCUPATION: Professional cricketer (formerly draughtsman)

FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Young Mashonaland v Mashonaland Country Districts,
at Alexandra Sports Club (Harare), 15 September 1995
TEST DEBUT: 14 March 1998, v Pakistan, at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
ODI DEBUT: 3 April 1997, v Sri Lanka, at Sharjah

Late in the 1996/97 season, Zimbabwe's selectors caused a surprise by introducing a very promising left-handed batsman, Dirk Viljoen, who had just turned 20 when he went to Sharjah as part of the national side. Neither was this the end of his overseas trips for the season, as on 24 May he travelled to Australia on a month-long scholarship to the Australian Academy, an annual award to a promising young Zimbabwean cricketer jointly sponsored by the Australian High Commission and Qantas.

Since then, though, this promising all-rounder has had a mixed career. He has frequently been on the fringes of the international team, although he was given a long and moderately successful run in the one-day team. He has still played only two Test matches and at the start of the 2002/03 season did not seem close to the national selectors' minds.

For a long time Dirk promised much but failed to achieve, and even today he still has only one first-class century to his credit. It took him until the 1999/2000 season to record his maiden fifty in first-class cricket, by which time he had already played in a Test match and nine one-day internationals. It was his promise and his positive, determined attitude more than anything else that kept him in the selectors' eyes for several years, until they quietly put him aside during the 2001/02 season.

Dirk was first introduced to the game at a very young age by his father, who was a Mashonaland Country Districts player; Dirk names him as his major inspiration and remembers with gratitude all the help and coaching he was given. It was by no means plain sailing from the beginning, though, as he confesses to having been a very weak player at colts level in his junior school, Eaglesvale, a non-bowler who batted at number ten. It was at this stage that his father stepped up the coaching and encouragement, and he has never looked back.

He improved enough to be scoring fifties and sixties, and was chosen to play for the Mashonaland team in the national primary schools week; he also attended the Under-13 trials, captaining his team, and was made a reserve for the national team. At Under-15 level he was selected for the Fawns, the national side, having attended the trials at Plumtree and playing a match against Matabeleland Under-16 side. In his second-last year at high school, he came on in leaps and bounds, scoring four centuries and averaging about 60. His `gentle' left-arm spin was also developing well, and he averaged about 11 with the ball. He was twice chosen for the national schools team to attend the South African Schools Weeks, in 1994 and 1995, at Durban and East London respectively. He did well enough to average about 50 at Durban, and at East London scored a fifty against Griqualand West.

Following this, he went overseas for a year and played a season for a team in Coventry, averaging about 60 and recording a century in one match. On his return, he was selected to captain the Zimbabwe Under-19 team to South Africa over New Year 1997, beginning with 89 and 50 in the first three-day game against Easterns, and 200 not out and 22 in the second match against North-Western Transvaal. His bowling was less conspicuous, but he worked hard at his ambitions to become an all-rounder at international level. He practised seriously against national players, which he said forced him to improve his line a lot. He was given a spell in the spinners' camp while at the Australian Academy in Adelaide in 1997 and learned more there. Gradually his bowling improved, and in fact during his two seasons as a semi-regular in the national one-day side he featured more as a bowler than a batsman, a left-arm spinner who pushed the ball through and kept a brake on the scoring.

Dirk enjoyed a good league season in 1996/97, scoring two centuries, and such was his potential that he was chosen for the powerful Mashonaland side in the Logan Cup ahead of such players as Glen Bruk-Jackson and Danie Erasmus. Early in his career he used at times to open the batting in his first-class games; while he prefers the middle order, he was willing to open if necessary, and this was actually his role when he made his Test debut, although it appeared to have been a wrong decision by the selectors. Dirk first read in the newspaper that he was a possible candidate for the scholarship to the Australian Academy, before he was approached by Ian Robinson, in his role as ZCU administration manager, and told that he had received the vote.

He was naturally very much in the selectors' minds at the start of the 1997/98 season, and a candidate as Grant Flower's opening partner for the Tests against New Zealand. But fine early form saw Gavin Rennie take the position and make it his own. Dirk had still not yet produced high enough scores at first-class level, although it was not for want of trying and hard work. Unfortunately, with such a restricted Logan Cup programme, opportunities were limited.

Dirk spent several years working as a draughtsman in Southerton, Harare, before accepting an offer from ZCU for a professional contract. His company was very good to him and gave him time off to play whenever he needed it. At club level he has continued to play for Old Hararians, after his school had been approached by the club which was looking for good young players. He played a season in the second team, with the odd senior game when the national players were away, and did well enough to retain his place when they returned.

Dirk pays tribute to the Test players, most of whom he says were very helpful to him during his early years. Dave Houghton, also an Old Hararians player, gave him a great deal of help when not on national team duties, while Paul Strang was also a great help, especially on the mental side of the game.

As a batsman, Dirk is a strong driver off the front foot, although short balls do not bother him. Remarkably, he played for Zimbabwe in Sharjah in 1996/97 despite not yet having scored a first-class fifty, as the selectors continue their enterprising policy of identifying and exposing gifted players early on. He remembers being phoned at work by Dave Houghton and told he was in the national squad for training and should attend net practice; after about three weeks, he heard that he was in the side for Sharjah. It was not the first time he had trained with the national players, as he had also done so before the England tour, but this was the first time he had been included in a specific small group with a tour in mind.

In Sharjah he filled the place vacated by Dave Houghton, absent coaching Worcestershire, and his scores of 17, 22 and 25 showed great skill under rather difficult and unfamiliar conditions. "It's a big jump from facing bowlers here who bowl you two half-volleys and a short ball every over to guys like Mushtaq Ahmed and Chaminda Vaas who don't give you any width or any free balls," he said. He named Mushtaq Ahmed as the most difficult bowler he had to face, especially on the Sharjah pitch where the ball was turning sharply, especially from the rough - but Mushtaq did not get his wicket while he scored 25.

He toured Sri Lanka and New Zealand with the national side during 1997/98, but only played in one first-class game altogether, a warm-up match in New Zealand. He did play four one-day internationals in that country, though, and his 36 in his first opportunity was the highest score of the innings. But batting at number seven or eight in one-day cricket is to be virtually on a hiding to nothing, with little or no chance of a big innings and plenty of room for failure, and he did not succeed again.

He won a surprise Test debut on his return to Zimbabwe. Gavin Rennie had failed in New Zealand, as had the team as a whole, and the selectors appeared to be desperate when they dropped him for the First Test against Pakistan and asked Dirk to open with Grant Flower. Again the likelihood of failure was too great; he had to open against bowlers of the quality of Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar armed with the new ball and without a first-class fifty behind him, and he failed to score in either innings. He was promptly dropped for the Second Test and Rennie reinstated.

That was his only Test appearance for some time, although the 1998/99 season brought him greater success than before with the bat. He had spent a season in England, when he had gone over to visit relatives and ended up playing for Barnt Green, thanks to the help of Andy Flower. He was learning to play straighter and to concentrate on spending time at the crease. At last the elusive fifty came, fore Mashonaland A against Matabeleland in Bulawayo, and with 92 he almost turned it into a century. Later in the season he recorded two more against England A, from whom he learned a great deal more about batting. He had played larger innings in the past for the Zimbabwe Board XI, in non-first-class fixtures; now he recorded 155 against Namibia and 100 against Border B. Promise was gradually turning into productivity.

He was selected for the World Cup in England in 1999, although many considered him fortunate to get the vote ahead of Craig Wishart, who had begun the season most impressively while opening the innings. He played in only one match, that against Australia at Lord's, scoring 5 before being given out stumped in controversial circumstances; many felt that there was insufficient evidence on the camera replay for the third umpire to rule him out.

On his return he was overlooked for the national team until England visited for a one-day series in February 2000. He failed with the bat, but his tight flat bowling did its job and he took three cheap wickets in the final match. This persuaded the selectors to persevere with him throughout the tours of West Indies and England; in fact, for a further eighteen months.

As a batsman he always went in between numbers six and nine, and more often at eight or nine, when either quick runs were needed or the side was in trouble. It actually took him 18 matches since he reappeared against England before he even reached double figures; then runs could not have returned at a more valuable time. Zimbabwe were struggling against Sri Lanka in Sharjah when Dirk at number six contributed 63 not out, which remains his highest international score; in the return match against the same team he scored 60.

However this did not earn him promotion, and he continued to go in at seven or eight. Ironically it was another home one-day series against England that cost him his place at the start of the 2001/02 season; little success with the bat low down and some more expensive bowling, together with a team failure that left the selectors looking for new faces, saw him lose his place and to date he has not returned.

He has played one more Test match, in India in 2001/02, and must have been relieved to score some runs this time. After 19 in the first innings, batting at number seven and playing as an all-rounder, he made a valuable 38 in the second, sharing a partnership of 113 with Andy Flower that helped to save the match. But the thought obviously was that he was a one-day specialist, as he has not been given a further chance.

On the domestic scene he has still not fulfilled his potential and his career batting average remains under 30. He has recorded just one century, a dominating 173 not out for Mashonaland against Matabeleland in Bulawayo during the 1999/2000, during which he shared a massive 330-run partnership with Craig Evans (who scored 153), and was not overshadowed by his powerful partner. But since then his highest first-class score has only been 79.

With the strength of the Mashonaland team at this time, he was signed up by Midlands for the 2001/02 season, and took over the captaincy when regular captain Doug Marillier was on international duties. Probably with Marillier's expected absences in mind, he was confirmed as official provincial captain for 2002/03 - but he would no doubt prefer to be back in the international side, and especially in the Test team.

Back home Dirk's family suffered disaster during 2002 when they were evicted from their farm under the `land resettlement' programme. At the age of 25 and having lost his place in the national side, his own future is very much in the balance. He will need to make more of an impact in future and do enough to force his way back into contention, or he may well fade out with promise unfulfilled. He has enough years left in him and enough skill to be able to succeed even now.