Craig Kieswetter was born on 28 November 1987 and is an English professional golfer and former cricketer who appeared in 71 matches for the England cricket team between 2010 and 2013.
60 Facts About Craig Kieswetter
2.
Craig Kieswetter played junior cricket for Western Province until the age of 18, but lack of opportunity led him to seek an alternative route in England.
3.
Craig Kieswetter studied at Millfield, where he was noticed by Somerset.
4.
Around this time, the captain of South Africa, Graeme Smith, invited him to return to play in South Africa but Craig Kieswetter preferred to qualify for England.
5.
In early 2010, Craig Kieswetter achieved his target; some strong performances for the England Lions, especially in a match against the senior England team, won him a place in the squad to face Bangladesh.
6.
Craig Kieswetter's selection, along with the presence of other South African-born players in the England team, was criticised; some commentators suggested there should be fewer foreign-born players in the team.
7.
Craig Kieswetter scored his only international century in his third match, and a couple of months later he was the man of the match in the final when England won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
8.
Craig Kieswetter returned to the team the following year, but his place was insecure, and in 2013 he was replaced by Jos Buttler, his teammate at Somerset.
9.
Craig Kieswetter's career was cut short by an injury sustained while batting for Somerset in July 2014: a ball penetrated the gap between his helmet's grille and visor and struck him in the face, damaging his vision.
10.
Craig Kieswetter was born in Johannesburg to an Afrikaner father, Wayne, and Scottish mother, Belinda.
11.
Craig Kieswetter studied at Diocesan College in Cape Town, and played cricket for Western Province junior teams between the ages of 13 and 18.
12.
Craig Kieswetter was disappointed when he was asked to play club cricket for two or three seasons before returning to play for the senior team; he never received an explanation and decided instead to pursue a cricket career in England, where he moved at the age of 18.
13.
Craig Kieswetter studied for his A-levels for a year at Millfield, where Mark Davis, a former Somerset bowler, spotted him.
14.
Craig Kieswetter made his first appearance for Somerset's second team in May 2006, taking over from Sam Spurway as wicket-keeper midway through a match when the latter was injured.
15.
Craig Kieswetter scored 94 not out in his first innings of that match against Glamorgan, and by the end of the season he had scored at an average of over 40.
16.
Craig Kieswetter's performances were so strong that Somerset chose to release Spurway at the start of the 2007 season, and named Kieswetter alongside Carl Gazzard as their two wicket-keepers.
17.
Craig Kieswetter made his first-class debut the following month, keeping wicket while Derbyshire made 801 for8 declared and scored 63 in the Somerset reply.
18.
Craig Kieswetter continued to perform well during 2007 and 2008, and was awarded the NBC Denis Compton Award, as the "most promising young player", for Somerset in both seasons, scoring several fifties in first-class and one-day cricket.
19.
Craig Kieswetter came in after two wickets had been lost in an over, with the score at 250 for 6.
20.
Towards the end of the 2008 season, during a 40-over match against Gloucestershire, Craig Kieswetter scored his first century for Somerset, scoring from, and sharing a competition-record 302-run partnership with Marcus Trescothick.
21.
In 2009, Craig Kieswetter passed 1,000 first-class runs in a season for the only time during his career.
22.
Craig Kieswetter scored two further first-class centuries during the year, both at Taunton, against Sussex and Lancashire; he averaged just under 60 for his 1,242 first-class runs in the season.
23.
In one-day cricket, Craig Kieswetter opened the batting alongside Trescothick, and averaged 65.83, scoring an unbeaten 138 off 131 balls against Warwickshire.
24.
Craig Kieswetter was awarded his county cap during the final game of the 2009 County Championship against Worcestershire.
25.
Craig Kieswetter repeated his desire to play international cricket for England.
26.
Craig Kieswetter scored 143, his career-best one-day score, from 123 balls.
27.
Opening the innings alongside captain Alastair Cook, Craig Kieswetter struggled in his first over; he made in an innings described by ESPNcricinfos Andrew Miller as "tinged with nerves" and "chancy".
28.
In contrast to the "hard-hitting batting" which Geoff Miller, the England selector, had cited as one of the reasons for his inclusion, Craig Kieswetter's century was patiently built after a nervous start.
29.
Craig Kieswetter opened the innings with Michael Lumb throughout the tournament, and ESPNcricinfos Andrew McGlashan identified their performances as one of the reasons that England reached the final.
30.
Craig Kieswetter opened the innings alongside Davies, who was playing as wicket-keeper, in the two T20Is, but made scores of only six and sixteen.
31.
Craig Kieswetter began the 2011 season strongly for Somerset, scoring in his first four one-day matches, including two centuries.
32.
Craig Kieswetter's form earned him a recall to England's one-day squads for the series against Sri Lanka, Geoff Miller saying "[Kieswetter] will offer some real fire power with the bat along with his ability with the gloves".
33.
Craig Kieswetter struck another half-century in the fourth match of the series: he scored 72 not out as England won by ten wickets.
34.
Craig Kieswetter remained England wicket-keeper for the T20I and ODI matches against India late in the season.
35.
In that series, Craig Kieswetter struggled against the moving ball in English conditions but was praised for his attacking batting, including from in the second match.
36.
Craig Kieswetter scored one half-century during the tour, and was included in the England Lions squad that toured Sri Lanka three months later.
37.
In early 2012, playing against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, Craig Kieswetter batted only twice in the ODI series, and was praised for his 43-run contribution in the fourth match, though George Dobell of ESPNcricinfo identified his wicket-keeping as "still not as polished as he would like".
38.
In contrast to the 2010 World Twenty20, when the England players were told to attack bat selflessly, in 2012 the team was instructed to avoid losing early wickets, and Craig Kieswetter struggled to adapt his game to score low-risk singles and rotate the strike.
39.
Craig Kieswetter played the first three ODIs of the series, scoring 24 not out, 18 and 0 before he was dropped and replaced by Buttler.
40.
Craig Kieswetter played, scoring at an average of 30.11.
41.
Craig Kieswetter began the season as the wicket-keeper in the County Championship, but broke his thumb during the third match of the season, which kept him out of action for six weeks.
42.
Craig Kieswetter had a particularly strong Twenty20 season, finishing as the leading run-scorer in the 2013 Friends Life t20 with, including five half-centuries.
43.
Craig Kieswetter entered the 2014 Indian Premier League auction, but remained unsold.
44.
Craig Kieswetter was called up as a late replacement for the injured Luke Wright for England's squad in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, but was not selected to play.
45.
Craig Kieswetter began the 2014 season positively for Somerset, particularly in the Twenty20 competition, in which he scored six half-centuries in ten innings, averaging just under 50.
46.
On 12 July 2014, Craig Kieswetter suffered a broken nose and fractured cheek bone while batting for Somerset against Northamptonshire in a County Championship match.
47.
Craig Kieswetter underwent facial surgery, and suffered from double vision for a while after.
48.
Craig Kieswetter returned to the Somerset side before the end of the 2014 season and scored a half-century in his first match back, against Middlesex, though he admitted that his vision was still not fully recovered.
49.
Craig Kieswetter played all ten matches for the Warriors, scoring at an average of 22.11, including two half-centuries.
50.
On 10 December 2014, despite having been named in England's 30-man provisional 2015 Cricket World Cup squad, Craig Kieswetter revealed that he was still suffering vision problems.
51.
Craig Kieswetter announced that he would not play in the 2015 season and would seek further treatment.
52.
Craig Kieswetter finished his career with similar statistics in first-class and one-day cricket; in both he averaged just under 40 and had scored eleven centuries.
53.
Craig Kieswetter played with what Wisden described as an "attractive, uncomplicated front-foot technique".
54.
Craig Kieswetter began his career playing in front of his stumps, but once bowlers had worked out his technique, he moved his batting stance to outside the leg stump to give himself more space to drive the ball.
55.
Craig Kieswetter moved back in front of his stumps, and maintained a calmer mentality, aiming to construct an innings.
56.
Craig Kieswetter was generally more highly regarded for his batting than his wicket-keeping, often drawing criticism for the quality of his glovework.
57.
Nonetheless, playing in an era when international teams did not play specialist wicket-keepers, Craig Kieswetter's selection was based primarily upon his batting ability, rather than his keeping ability.
58.
Craig Kieswetter began as a middle-order batsman, but by the end of the 2007 season, although he remained in the middle-order in first-class cricket, Kieswetter regularly found himself opening the batting alongside Marcus Trescothick in one-day cricket, a role he would take up in opening six matches of the 2009 Twenty20 Cup, although he later dropped back into the middle order to improve the balance of the side.
59.
Craig Kieswetter had done so during his youth in South Africa, playing in provincial tournaments.
60.
Craig Kieswetter played regularly on the Tour during 2017 and in September won his biggest prize of the season, winning US$360 in the Dubai Creek Open after finishing tied for 38th place.