Wiese joins ranks of Kolpak
PROTEAS limited overs all-rounder David Wiese has joined Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw and signed a Kolpak contract that effectively ends his national team career.
The 31-year-old Wiese of the Titans played six ODIs and 20 T20s for South Africa between 2013 and 2016 and was part of Russell Domingo’s squad during the last T20 World Cup in India where he played three matches last year.
Throughout his professional years‚ Wiese‚ who has career-best bowling figures of 5/23 in T20s‚ has build a reputation as a finisher of matches because of his explosive batting in the middle order.
There is a possibility that Wiese was going to be included in the Proteas squad for the three T20 matches against Sri Lanka in Pretoria‚ Johannesburg and Cape Town later this month.
Wiese would also have been included in the Proteas squad for the once-off match against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland next month.
Titans chief executive Jacques Faul confirmed to Times Media Digital that Wiese had signed a contract with Sussex and wished him well in his future endeavours‚ thanking him for his contributions to the franchise.
“To be honest‚ he conducted himself well in the whole process and he was open to us because at the age of 31, time is no longer on his side‚” he said.
“He came to us and put all his cards on the table and we supported and respected his decision because he gave it a lot of thought.”
Recently‚ Wiese helped the Titans to defend their T20 Challenge title and he has played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Royal Challengers Bangalore‚ in the CPL for the Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents.
Over the past 12 months‚ Cricket South Africa (CSA) has seen an increasing number of players such as Abbott‚ Rossouw‚ Simon Harmer‚ Hardus Viljoen‚ Stiaan van Zyl‚ Rory Kleinveldt‚ Colin Ingram and Richard Levi signing Kolpak deals with English counties. — TMG Digital
● See story P17