55 Facts About Lance Klusener

Lance Klusener was born on 4 September 1971 and is an international cricket coach and former cricketer of South Africa.

Lance Klusener was known for his aggressive batting and fast-medium swing bowling.

Lance Klusener was popular for his ferocious batting, ability to hit the deck hard and ability to take wickets on crunch situations and break partnerships.

Lance Klusener is nicknamed "Zulu" because of his fluency in the Zulu language.

In September 2019, Lance Klusener was appointed as the head coach of the Afghanistan national cricket team.

Lance Klusener grew up on a sugarcane farm north of Empangeni, attending Kwambonambi primary school with Zulu children.

Lance Klusener later attended Durban High School and broke into the school's first team only in his final year.

Lance Klusener underwent military service for three years which contributed to a straightforward approach to his bowling.

The manager of Natal Denis Carlstein identified the potential in his bowling and he recommended Lance Klusener to attend the provincial nets.

Lance Klusener was later spotted by the West Indian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall who was then Natal's overseas player in the first-class cricket season.

Lance Klusener played for KwaZulu-Natal in the domestic level in South Africa between 1991 and 2004.

Lance Klusener made his ODI debut on 19 January 1996 against England.

At the time playing primarily as a bowler, Lance Klusener took some hammering in the first innings at the hands of Mohammad Azharuddin, who at one point hit him for five consecutive fours, but Lance Klusener returned what would remain career-best figures of eight for 64 in the second.

Lance Klusener was initially selected to the South African squad for the 50 over cricket tournament at the 1998 Commonwealth Games but he later withdrew from the tournament without featuring in any of the games and was replaced by Alan Dawson.

Lance Klusener raised his game in test cricket further by scoring 174 against England in a drawn test match in Port Elizabeth in December 1999 and he was awarded the player of the match.

Lance Klusener is remembered for his contributions in One Day Internationals, in which he was a hard hitting batsman and was voted as Man of the Tournament during the 1999 World Cup.

Lance Klusener showed glimpses of his big-hitting in the years leading to the 1999 World Cup.

Lance Klusener was voted as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2000.

Lance Klusener has most fifers for South Africa in ODIs with 6.

Lance Klusener's streak was finally ended by Gavin Larsen in the Super Six stage match against New Zealand when he was dismissed for the first time in the tournament after scoring just four runs.

Lance Klusener's finishing prowess before the New Zealand match prompted the team to promote him to no 3 position in the match against New Zealand but it backfired.

Lance Klusener still holds the record for not having dismissed in most consecutive innings in World Cup matches.

Lance Klusener was praised for his baseball-style backlift throughout the tournament.

Lance Klusener had a strike rate of 163 in last 10 overs of 1999 WC.

Lance Klusener won four Man of the Match awards out of the nine matches South Africa played in the tournament.

Lance Klusener was criticized for his knock in a losing cause against Zimbabwe taking 58 balls to score 52 and when South Africa were bowled out for 185, he was stranded in the crease without being dismissed.

Lance Klusener scored consecutive fours on the first two balls of the over, levelling the scores and leaving South Africa with only 1 run to win in 4 balls with Lance Klusener on strike.

Lance Klusener went for the run, although chances of a run-out were high and two balls were still remaining.

However, Donald at the other end, keeping his eyes on the ball and hoping to avoid another mix-up like in the last delivery, did not see Lance Klusener sprinting down the pitch and did not hear the call to run, and Lance Klusener was almost at the bowler's end by the time Donald began running.

Australia went on to win the tournament, but Lance Klusener was voted the Player of the Series.

In 2014, Lance Klusener stated in an interview that Donald was not to blame for what happened.

Lance Klusener stated that he became impatient and, although he made it to the bowler's end, there was genuinely no run.

Lance Klusener was named in South African squad for the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy.

Lance Klusener then got a recall to the South African team for both the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and 2003 World Cup.

Lance Klusener performed decently, despite South Africa's group stage exit from the 2003 World Cup tournament.

Lance Klusener was snubbed from the side for the tour of England in 2003 which raised questions about his future in the game.

Later, United Cricket Board of South Africa and Lance Klusener both swept the legal battle under the carpet and ended their differences.

Lance Klusener received a test recall for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2004.

Lance Klusener was included for the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy.

Lance Klusener severed all ties with the Indian Cricket League in late 2009 and then completed a Level-three coaching course provided by Cricket South Africa in Spring 2010.

Lance Klusener has worked closely with the South African High Performance Program and worked with the South Africa A cricket team.

Lance Klusener confirmed he was in negotiations with the Bangladesh Cricket Board about becoming the team bowling coach.

Lance Klusener had finally turned down the offer to take over as Bangladesh's bowling coach, replacing Sri Lanka's Champaka Ramanayake.

Lance Klusener was reportedly unable to convince his wife about a permanent move to Bangladesh.

From 2012 until 2016, he was head coach of the Dolphins, whom he represented in domestic cricket during his playing career, Lance Klusener reportedly took over the coaching job from Graham Ford during the mid domestic season in 2012 as the latter resigned midway and departed to Sri Lanka to coach the Sri Lankan national side.

In February 2016, his contract with Dolphins was terminated and was told that his contract would not be renewed which triggered Lance Klusener to seek an arbitration proceeding over the manner of his dismissal from the Dolphins franchise.

Lance Klusener coached the Lyca Kovai Kings in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.

Lance Klusener served as the batting coach of Mumbai Indians and has coached Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.

In July 2019, Lance Klusener was appointed as the head coach of the Glasgow Giants for the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament.

In September 2019, Lance Klusener was appointed as the head coach of the Afghanistan national cricket team replacing Phil Simmons.

Lance Klusener stepped down from the post after the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

In January 2022, Lance Klusener was appointed as the head coach of the Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League In 2022, it was reported that he initially applied for the role of head coach of Sri Lankan men's cricket team but after being shortlisted by Sri Lanka Cricket as one of the candidates, he pulled out at the eleventh hour citing personal reasons.

Lance Klusener is one of the assistant coach of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants.

Lance Klusener married Isabelle Potgieter on 13 May 2000, at age 28 in Durban.

Lance Klusener is one of the goodwill partners of Cricket Foundation which is a blockchain-based platform headquartered in Singapore.