Hot on the heels of their recent signing of Kiwi, Brett Hampton, Sparta 1888 have swooped to sign resident South African Lenert van Wyk.

Former Provincial Star

Van Wyk is an explosive top-order batter and useful medium-pacer currently living and working in the Netherlands (for Cape Five NL BV in Ammerzoden).

A former South African domestic player, van Wyk played 97 matches across the three formats, initially for Boland (2007/08-2012/13), before featuring for both the Cape Cobras (2009/10-10/11), and Free State (2012/13-2014/15). He also attended the South African Academy and represented the South African Universities and South Africa at the international Hong Kong 6s tournament.

Van Wyk played 34 first-class games with Boland (1,273 runs at 23.57) prior to his move to Free State in March 2013, where he churned out 729 runs at 36.45 including highest scores of 147 and 150* over 14 matches. He has also featured for the Cape Cobras in several Pro40 matches and remains in contention of a re-call courtesy of his domestic exploits.

The South African has a penchant for scoring big runs. He notched up 5 first-class centuries, namely 170, 110, 147, 100 and 150*, in addition to a magnificent 156 not out for the Cape Cobras Emerging Players whilst chasing down 271 set by Sussex during a pre-season 40-over match in Abu Dhabi (March 2010).

Van Wyk has also starred during several outings for South Africa, firstly for the University side in 2009, then for the Sixes team during the Hong Kong Sixes in 2011, with scores of 32* (11) vs. Pakistan and 36* (16) vs. India.

Whilst van Wyk is known for his aggressive stroke-play, he is also a more than handy seamer, with 11 domestic wickets to his name. He bowls a heavy ball, clocking in around the 125-130kph mark.

Dominant overseas Pro

Van Wyk spent his first season abroad playing league cricket in 2014 with success. Playing in the Dutch top-flight competition (the “Topklasse”), he scored 342 runs at 26.31 alongside 12 wickets at 29.42 for Excelsior. He was even more impressive in the T20 format churning out 267 runs at 53.50 in 6 innings, with 3 fifties in addition to 6 wickets at 18.50 with an economy rate of 5.55.

He then returned abroad in 2015 and excelled – topping the CSL Western Premier Division run charts with 795 runs at 72.27 (alongside 16 wickets at 26.25). He broke a raft of records throughout the season and was selected for the Western District Cricket Union side who played T20 matches against Canada and the Netherlands. Van Wyk became the quickest player to reach 1,000 runs for Ayr in a season – achieving the mark in June. Not only did he excel in the league, but he dominated the Cup competitions, with several notable hundreds.

Van Wyk signs for Sparta

Van Wyk headed back to the Netherlands last summer, albeit for work, having secured employment for Cape Five NL BV in Ammerzoden, utilizing his B Comm degree in Logistics and Business Accountancy that he obtained from the University of Stellenbosch. He played a couple of matches for his former club, Excelsior ’20, and is now set to embark on a full season, having recently signed with Topklasse rivals, Sparta 1888.