Kepler Christoffel Wessels was born on 14 September 1957 and is a South African-Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia.
50 Facts About Kepler Wessels
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Kepler Wessels played first-class cricket for Orange Free State, Western Province, Northern Transvaal, Eastern Province and Griqualand West in South Africa, for Queensland in Australia and Sussex in England.
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From a very early age, Kepler Wessels showed exceptional sporting talent.
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However, after a close encounter with death, due to nephritis, Kepler Wessels's father decided that his son would no longer be allowed to participate in swimming.
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Kepler Wessels decided to switch to cricket, even though the rules of Grey College did not allow him to play at such a young age.
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However, due to the fact that he played as an under-16 against adults, Kepler Wessels began to lose regularly in senior tournaments.
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Kepler Wessels was selected to represent the Free State schools side at the prestigious Nuffield Week for five consecutive seasons; and was selected three times for the South African schools side, the third season as captain.
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Kepler Wessels finished his high school cricket career with an innings of 130 not out, during a home game for Grey College, against rival Queen's College from the Eastern Cape.
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Kepler Wessels played his first first-class match at the age of 16, batting at number nine and making 32 for Orange Free State in a team captained by the Test veteran Colin Bland.
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Kepler Wessels arrived in Sydney at the age of 21 and was put on trial at the local Waverley club, for Packer to see first if Wessels was decent material for World Series Cricket.
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The media was unaware that Kepler Wessels had already signed for Packer.
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That was the signal Packer needed and he quickly called a press conference to announce that Kepler Wessels would be playing World Series Cricket instead.
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Finally, Kepler Wessels was included in the Australian XI, for a one-day game against the WSC World XI, which included four fellow South Africans.
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Kepler Wessels scored 20, made 21 in the next game and then got 92 against the Cavaliers side.
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Kepler Wessels regained some respect during the next Supertest against the WSC West Indies, by scoring 126 in his first innings.
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The one-day series involved a best-of-five final between Australia and the West Indies and Kepler Wessels scored an unbeaten 136 during the first match which was the only century in the WSC International Cup, during one of the finest one-day innings of his career.
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Kepler Wessels stayed in Australia to qualify for the Australian Test side, playing for Queensland, and made his debut against England at The Gabba in Brisbane on 26 November 1982.
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Kepler Wessels became the first South-African born person to play for Australia, and the 13th Australian player to score a century on debut.
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Kepler Wessels dominated the English bowling, with scores of 162 in the first innings and 46 in the second.
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Kepler Wessels was instrumental in Australia's victory by seven wickets and was given the "Man of the Match" award.
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Kepler Wessels eventually played four Tests in his debut series and scored 386 runs at an average of 48.25.
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Kepler Wessels continued his good form with 141, thus becoming the first overseas player to score a century in Sri Lanka.
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Kepler Wessels was named "man of the match" in Australia's innings victory.
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Kepler Wessels made 76 against Zimbabwe but it was not enough to save Australia from defeat.
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Kepler Wessels played in each of the five Tests against Pakistan, scoring 256 runs at an average of 42.66.
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Kepler Wessels scored 4 and 20 in the first Test and 4 and 4 in the second Test, before injury ruled him out of the rest of the series.
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Kepler Wessels was dismissed by West Indian fast bowler Joel Garner three times, and was nicknamed "Joel's bunny" as a result.
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Kepler Wessels responded by going out for 0 after the second ball, and many people thought that his career was over.
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Batting up number 3, Kepler Wessels top scored again with 98 runs in the first innings and 70 in the second, in a match where the Australian batting was being taken apart by the West Indian bowlers.
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The fourth Test saw Kepler Wessels continue his heavy scoring, with 90 and 0 helping Australia force a draw.
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Kepler Wessels's batting helped Australia to 9 for 471, which was a winning total on a wicket that was taking spin.
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Kepler Wessels scored 505 runs at an average of 56.11 against the West Indies, which was more than double the number of runs scored by any other Australian batsmen during that series.
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Unfortunately, Kepler Wessels was unable to maintain his form during the 1985 Ashes Tour of England.
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Kepler Wessels was alone in resisting the devastating bowling of Richard Hadlee, scoring 70 out of Australia's first innings total of 179.
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Kepler Wessels scored only 3 in the second innings, with Australia suffering its heaviest defeat against New Zealand.
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Kepler Wessels did not realize that 6 years later he would be playing Test Cricket again, this time for his home nation.
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Kepler Wessels captained the side in Border's absence, and was unlucky not to captain the first Queensland side to win the Sheffield Shield.
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Kepler Wessels continued to play for Eastern Province from 1986 until his retirement in 2000.
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Kepler Wessels played with many former Australian teammates in this series, including Kim Hughes, John Dyson, Steve Smith, Rodney Hogg, Carl Rackemann and Terry Alderman.
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At 34, Kepler Wessels had both the first-class experience of contemporaries such as Clive Rice and Jimmy Cook, but had experience at Test level that no other South African player had.
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Once again, criticism against Kepler Wessels started to mount back in South Africa, with many analysts believing that South Africa's problems were caused by the captain's conservative approach to one-day cricket.
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South Africa, under Kepler Wessels' leadership, controlled most of the match but fell for 148 chasing 201 for victory in the final innings.
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Kepler Wessels was forced to return to South Africa because of his injury, thus missing out on the rest of the tour.
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Kepler Wessels was immediately reinstated as captain for the home series against Australia.
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Kepler Wessels later moved to the Highveld Lions franchise in South Africa as a consultant.
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In 2018, Kepler Wessels became a member of the Cricket Australia Supplementary Referee Panel.
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Kepler Wessels was the subject of much criticism during his cricket career, especially from his country of birth, South Africa.
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Kepler Wessels was, at times, heavily criticised for his alleged inability to play one-day cricket.
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Kepler Wessels was never dismissed for a duck during his 105 ODI innings; no other retired player can boast this feat for a career longer than 50 innings.
50.
Kepler Wessels was accused of killing the game and ruining what was supposed to be the annual showpiece of South African cricket, by not giving his opponents, Transvaal, a fair chance at batting.