Former Wellington Cricket Club and Bellville Cricket Club batsman Dawid Malan has been named in England’s squad for this month’s Twenty20 International series against South Africa.
Malan represented Wellington Cricket Club during the 2006 National Club Championship in Pretoria – and played for Bellville Cricket Club in the Western Province Cricket Association premier league as recently as February 2015.
“Dawid was still very young at that stage and I clearly remember him telling us he would still go play cricket in the UK,” Kempton Park Cricket Club veteran Johan Fourie, who played against Malan during the 2006 National Club Championship, told Club Cricket SA.
“To be honest, he looked like all good youngsters and didn’t really stand out. But when I went to England as an overseas professional years later, Malan was smashing runs for Middlesex already, so he obviously developed really quickly.”
The uncapped Malan was named in England’s squad for July 2016’s one-off T20I against Sri Lanka in Southampton, but was not selected for the playing XI.
The hard-hitting 29-year-old’s professional Twenty20 career has spanned more than a decade – and yielded 3459 runs at an average of 33.91 and 124.60 strike-rate.