Honestly, I had not heard of a Cricketer with a name he is not called with, I mean I have heard of nicknames sticking better than the real ones… so now I do know one such cricketer, a guy who answers to the name of Boeta Dippenaar. Hendrik Human Dippenaar, is a lot less familiar than Boeta Dippenaar!

Boeta’s first ever international match was an ODI, when India toured SA in September 1999. that game was a forgettable game by all means. SA were humbled by Sunil Joshi’s magic woven upon them: Sunil Joshi walked away with 10-6-6-5, a game every South African batsman would love to forget! He made a poor start to his career with 18 runs, before he was caught by Dravid off Joshi, the tormentor for that day!

Our Protean Star for the day was never in the test team for a longer span of time. One would find him once or twice in a season, that his 5 years at the highest level of cricket he played only in 26 tests is testimony to this fact. He had to wait a full year before he got his first ever test 50. His maiden Test Century came against New Zealand in the third test at Johannesburg, the Mecca of South African Cricket, when the Black Caps toured SA.

He was always in the ODI team for most of his career, purely for the rich talent he displayed in the domestic scene. (He is only the 18^th South African to gross 1000 runs in a single domestic season.) Despite his first nightmarish run with the bat in his debut series, he managed to churn the runs every now and then, and unleashed his talent with the bat and in the field.. Like all other South African players, this chirpy cricketer was always one of the finest fielders in the world.

Ever since his first test hundred he has never looked back. He did follow that knock with a 177* versus Bangladesh in 2003 at Chittagong. His test average of 29.45 is by no means anything to boast about, but his ODI record speaks for itself. In 77 ODIS, he averages over 40, which is very good for any batsman. Initially starting out as an opening batsman to face the new ball, he later shifted and found more comfort in the middle order. After a string of good scores, all being fifties, he finally hit his first three-figure mark in the shorter version recently against Pakistan at Lahore, coming in as an opener against a team that included the quickies such as Shoaib Akhtar, and Mohammad Sami.

Much criticism has been heard about his strike rate, which is not something he has really worked on so far. He is not exactly the batsman to look for when the team requires a quick-fire knock! His role is more of a sheet anchor, a solid batsman who would get you out of trouble.

Boeta Dippenaar is most certainly a player to watch out for the future, a hard worker, he grafts for runs, and thrives on solidity and consistency, and working behind the scenes quietly rather than being flashy, and attractive. Truly one feels he has not done justice to his great talent at the test level, something yet to be seen from this wonderful cricketer who has been improving by leaps and bounds!