Morné Cilliers says his earliest memory of playing the game is backyard cricket with his family and, barring a five-year spell before the start of the Veterans League, he has not stopped.
Educated at the famed Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool that later produced the likes of AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, he starred as a bowler for the likes of NKP, Harlequins and Berea Park, playing 15 years of Premier League Cricket and also being selected for the South African Colleges team.
By his own admission, Cilliers never in his wildest dreams thought about representing his country, but the Veterans League got him to dust his boots off and, after making the Titans Veterans side, he got selected for South Africa, scoring an unbeaten 49 off just 23 balls in the Africa Quadrangular Series against Zimbabwe late last year.
Nickname: Morras
Favourite cricketer: Graeme Pollock
Favourite shot: Cover drive
Toughest bowlers faced: Ezra Moseley, Gerbrand Grobler, Fanie de Villiers, Tertius Bosch, Rudi Bryson and Victor Walcott
Toughest batsmen bowled to: Louis Voster, Mandy Yachad, Noel Day, Andre Seymour, Clayton Lambert, Mike Rindell
Picture by Goolam Taliep