We caught up with our 2021 professional Tian Koekemoer. Tian is a 26 year old left handed batsman and a right arm medium-fast bowler. The Eastern Province all rounder has hit 1625 runs at 46.4 and taken 63 wickets at 24.7 since making his First-class debut in 2015.

Hi Tian, a warm welcome from all at CCC

What have you been up to this winter?
I’ve been back in my home province (Limpopo). Did quite a lot of travelling to various game
farms, visiting friends and family, and training at the local high school as things were rather
restricted due to Covid19 lockdown regulations.

What are your expectations of your time at Clitheroe CC?
My expectations are quite big. On the field I want to lead by example and help the team win trophies which I feel is possible if we put in the hard yards. Off the field I would obviously like to build up new connections and make new friends and do some exploring in and around Clitheroe.

The Lancashire League has been known for some famous South African professionals (including AB De Villiers and Alan Donald in the modern day era). Do you know much about the league, and what are you looking forward to about getting started?
As far as I know there are guys like Darren Smit and Ockert Erasmus that are from South
Africa. I don’t personally know them but I’m sure I will when we play against them.

We have a large junior section at the club who are hopefully going to benefit from your knowledge of the game. Any tips/advice for our young players over the winter or more generally on how the should approach the game?
I’m looking forward to working with the juniors. The best advice I could possibly give now
during this pandemic is to train smart and focus on the basics really hard such as batting and bowling drills that can help improve their batting and bowling techniques. Once the season starts those basics will help them a lot in hitting the ground running and give them the best chance to perform.

More broadly, what's your proudest moment in cricket?
My proudest moment in cricket is winning the Red Bull Campus Cricket Final (better known
as the University World Cup) where we beat the West Indies in the final at The Oval in
London. Another proud moment was getting a 100 in our 3-day competition final back here.

Best players played with and against?
in South Africa. The best players I’ve played with are Aiden Markram, Theunis de Bruyn and
Sean Dickson (Durham) and the best player I’ve played against up until this point is a guy
named Glenton Stuurman whom I think could play for South Africa in the next year.

How would you describe yourself as a player?
I am a really hard-working player and a fighter (give it my all) on the field. I love batting for
long periods of time and with the ball I like being in the batsman’s face while looking to
always take wickets. I also believe what you put in is what you will get out and always play to win.

Finally, what can everyone at CCC expect from you next summer? They can expect me to bring a winning mentality during training and while playing matches. I
really want to win trophies and from speaking to Peter (1st XI Captain) it sounds like there is
a lot of depth at the club so I believe if we work smartly we will go all the way. I’m a people’s person so off the field they can expect me to get stuck in by getting to know everyone in and around the club, and hopefully I can give back as much as possible to the club and also at the same time have a good time off the field with all the lads. I really look forward to joining the club and having a great time on and off the field.

We are all looking forward to welcoming Tian in April.