Hopes of a memorable experience for overseas amateur

Worldwide cricket stars Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer and Lal Rajput have all sampled life in the Fair City.

And now Perth Doo’cot Cricket Club’s newest overseas addition has plans to follow in their footsteps.

South African Emeul Knoesen, a right handed top order batsman and right arm off break bowler, has been added to the Perth squad for the 2017 campaign.

The registration of an overseas amateur is nothing new at Doo’cot Park and for 21-year-old Knoesen, he believes the experience will be a life changing one.

Early indications are that this Pretoria player could be a vital cog in the success of Perth this year, having chalked up a neat half-century in a friendly against Glenrothes earlier in the week.

“I was really excited about the move but also scared because it’s my first time overseas,” Knoesen told the Perthshire Advertiser. “In South Africa the cricket season is from August to February - just now is our winter.

“I originally wanted to play in England but then I heard about Perth. I just got a feeling that I needed to go there. I went on to Google and looked at a few things. It is such a beautiful place and I’m very excited.

“I’ve been playing Club Premier League over in South Africa, which is the highest club level. While over here, I hope to learn how to play in these conditions.

“But when you go away from home and play cricket somewhere else you also learn a lot about yourself. So that is my main goal.

“At this club if you don’t perform, you don’t get shut out - and that’s a big reason I wanted to come here. In England they expect more. There’s a feeling that you have to perform.

“You can’t force cricket. If the team spirit is not there, you will never get picked up from a bad performance. But if the club is behind you, everything will move uphill.

“I’m still young and one day want to play big cricket. I think this is a big stepping stone for me.”

Knoesen’s role at Perth Doo’cot will not be primarily confined to playing competitive matches. Developing the club’s younger generation is also high on the agenda.

Club captain and secretary Graham Ferguson has experienced the highs and lows of cricket locally. He was delighted to welcome the South African.

“We’ve had overseas players for as long as I’ve played, since the mid-80s,” he said. “We used to have people come over to Perth County who played down at the North Inch.

“Perth Doo’cot, as a club itself, is really only five or six years old and was a merger of Perth County and the clubs who played at Doo’cot.

“Strathearn were the main club at Doo’cot and they, towards the end of the old set-up, had started to recruit overseas players.

“When we created the new club we carried that on. There are a number of reasons behind it.

“These guys are usually very good players to enhance the team but they are also there for coaching and development within the club.

“Youngsters within the club can relate

more to this overseas person than they do to boring old locals like me. They have an aura about them.

“They are brought as much for development as playing. We think we offer life opportunities for people like Emeul to come over and experience another country and culture.”

Ferguson has watched the likes of Australians Gilchrist and Langer - and Indian talent Rajput - ply their trade with the Perth side. Even they took time to adjust to the style of cricket in Scotland.

“Justin Langer was our second 11 professional at the North Inch, never mind the first 11,” Ferguson said. “So

you have two legends like Langer and Gilchrist who have played cricket in Perth.

“And you have Henderson Springer, who is involved with the West Indies. He was a professional at Perth in the 90s.

“Then Lal Rajput who played two tests for India, and is the current manager of Afghanistan, was also a professional at the North Inch.

“The first class professionals and a lot of the overseas amateurs tend to gravitate down south. The standard of club cricket in the likes of Yorkshire is higher than here.

“But the demands on these guys is much more. If you have a couple of bad performances your team-mates stop talking to you - that’s not the way it is here.

“We’ve hired a person not some kind of performance hero who is coming over to perform every week. That’s not the way it is.

“The wickets here are totally different to South Africa. The ground will be softer and Emeul may find himself playing shots before the ball has reached him.

“You need to adjust. Even when Gilchrist was here, someone who played 100-odd tests for Australia, he found it difficult to adjust.