Pakistani Cricket Players: Morne Morkel

Morne Morkel Biography
Full name Morne Morkel
Born October 6, 1984, Vereeniging, Transvaal
Current age 26 years 106 days
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Relation Father - A Morkel, Brother - JA Morkel

Morne Morkel Profile
Morne Morkel, brother of allrounder Albie, is an out-and-out fast bowler who has the pace and height to trouble the best. Morkel made his first-class debut in 2003-04, and earned promotion to the Nashua Titans in the 2006 domestic season. A certain Allan Donald marked him out as national potential with good words for the lanky fast bowler's ability to extract bounce and bowl genuinely fast.

Morkel sat out of much of the 2005 season due to injury, but excelled in a fast bowling camp organised by the South African board under Donald's watchful eye. Critics have had little to say against him, and both his attitude and physical strength were seen as plus points. With the big talking point of the 2006-07 season being India's tour of South Africa, Morkel used the opportunity to play for Rest of South Africa against the tourists to make a statement. On the opening day of the four-day fixture at Potchefstroom, Morkel cut a swathe through the Indian top order with 4 for 29. That showing earned him a Test call-up, and he made his debut in the second Test at Durban when Dale Steyn was ruled out, showing good application in an unbeaten 32, shepherding his fellow tail-enders, and pushing South Africa on to a score that seemed scarcely probable earlier in the match. He added three quick wickets on day three to help South Africa to a fantastic win, but missed out on the final Test at Cape Town.

He had a brief stint with Kent during the 2007 season and then impressed during the ICC World Twenty20 when his pace and bounce proved too much for some top batsmen. A stress fracture early in the Pakistan tour which followed halted the rapid rise, and at the start of 2008, his spell at Yorkshire was cut short by injury, but Morkel bounced back to lead South Africa's attack, without ever being at his best, on their victorious tour of England in July and August. In October 2008 he and his brother Albie became the first brothers in 56 years to be named as South African Cricket Annual Cricketers of the Year in the same season, and Morkel was an important , if unspectacular, part of South Africa's successful tour of Australia. He paid the price for some indifferent bowling form in the return series, however, and was dropped for the third Test at Cape Town. After a relatively quiet year, during which he featured in South Africa's squad for the World Twenty20 but was overlooked for the Champions Trophy, Morkel was recalled to the one-day team for the third ODI against England in November 2009. He continued to trouble batsmen with sharp pace and steepling bounce in the Test series that followed, and came within a whisker of sealing a dramatic victory for South Africa in the third Test at Cape Town when he removed an obdurate Ian Bell in his penultimate over.

Morne Morkel