Biography

Kepler Wessels holds the unique distinction of plying his trade for both, the Australian and the South African national teams. The South-African born cricketer was an important member of the Australian team and shot to prominence when in his debut Test against England in 1982, he scored 162 and 46, dominating the English bowlers in the process.

In the following year when Australia played their first Test against Sri Lanka, Wessels continued with his blazing form and scored 141. He was a part of the 1983 World Cup team but the team's campaign ended in the group stages itself. Wessels' true test of character came in 1984 in the disastrous tour of the West Indies. Starting off poorly, he was in danger of being dropped, but since the entire Australian batting line up succumbed to the might of the West Indian speedsters, he was retained. He repaid the board in kind and went on to score a mammoth 505 at an average of 56.11 runs in the series which was more than double of any other Australian batsman.

In 1992, he moved back to his native South Africa after the apartheid issue was cleared and was made Test and ODI captain at the age of 34, mainly due to his vast experience in international cricket with Australia. He captained the national team to the semi-finals on the 1992 World Cup where they narrowly lost to England due to an unfortunate rain break. In 1993/94 he went back to Australia, only this time at the helm of the opposition team. After the first drawn Test, South Africa managed to win the Sydney Test in front of a capacity crowd. The win came at a cost though as Wessels suffered a hand injury and had to return. In the return tour, when the Aussies toured South Africa, he was reinstated as the captain but retired immediately after the tournament.

Following his retirement, he took to coaching and was in charge of English county side Northamptonshire till the year 2006. He got a lucrative coaching offer from the Chennai Super Kings of the IPL in 2008 which he gladly accepted.