Daryll Cullinan

Daryll John Cullinan (born 4 March 1967) is a former South African first-class cricketer who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals for South Africa as a specialist batsman.

He was regarded as the most gifted batsman of his generation as he was equally adept against pace or spin.

Cullinan has said that his most important batting fundamentals were his balance, knowing where his off-stump was and getting his defence in order.

He ended up playing 70 tests and 138 ODIs for South Africa.

Cullinan's career Test average of 44.21 is only surpassed by ten South Africans with more than ten Tests.

At the time of his retirement, he held the record for scoring the most test centuries for South Africa, with 14.

Cullinan made his first-class debut in 1983.

At the age of 15, critics also drew comparisons of his batting intensity to that of Barry Richards.

He became the youngest South African to score a first-class century, at the age of 16 years and 304 days in 1985.

Soon after he eclipsed the record of Graeme Pollock to become the youngest ever South African first-class centurion, he was tagged as the “new Graeme Pollock” when he was still a schoolboy.

He emerged as a child prodigy and was dubbed by many in cricketing fraternity as the next best thing for South African cricket.

Despite all the hype around him, he was also subjected to abuse and bullying at the tender age of 16 during a domestic match against Transvaal and Cullinan himself admitted that he was an introvert and had to cope up with the bullying.

He was in the center stage of South Africa's batting lineup ever since South Africa was readmitted to international cricket in the 1990s.

Cullinan was known for his ability to produce fine test innings under pressure situations at any conditions and he delivered in most of the occasions except for in Australian conditions.

Despite excelling at first-class level from a young age, he had to wait for a long time for his turn to play test cricket due to the fact that South Africa was still banned from international cricket until 1992 due to apartheid.

He revealed that his initial ambition is to play country cricket because of the ban on South African cricket which led to lack of exposure.

He also achieved the highest first-class score in domestic South African cricket at the time, scoring 337 not out.

Cullinan was also involved in an unusual stoppage when 'calamari stopped play'.

During a regional match in South Africa, Cullinan hit fellow international Roger Telemachus for six, whereupon it ended up in the kitchen and straight into a pan of fried calamari.

According to Wisden, "Daryll Cullinan hit a six into a frying pan. It was about ten minutes before the ball was cool enough for the umpires to remove the grease. Even then, [the bowler] was unable to grip the ball and it had to be replaced".

His first-class career spanned almost 20 years and he went onto play first-class cricket for six different teams in South African domestic competition including Transvaal, Western Province, Easterns, Titans, Border and Gauteng.

He made his test debut against India on 2 January 1993 at Cape Town and made 46 in the first innings following it up with a score of 28 in the second innings and ultimately the test ended in a draw.

He made his ODI debut on 9 February 1993 against Pakistan at Durban during the 1992–93 Total International Series but he was dismissed for a silver duck by Waqar Younis as Pakistan registered a stunning 10 run victory defending a modest total of just 208 despite the heroics of Andrew Hudson for South Africa in the run chase.

In 1994, in the third test of the series against England at The Oval, he stood firm and scored crucial 94 runs which accounted for 54% of the team total whereas other batsmen around him fell prey to Devon Malcolm as Malcolm decimated the Proteas with 9/57 and South Africa crumbled to 175 all out.

He also pursued county cricket featuring for Derbyshire in 1995 and then for Kent in 2001.

He was an integral member of the South African which won the four nation Sameer Cup 1996–97 where South Africa emerged victorious in the final after defeating Pakistan by 7 wickets.

He was part of the South African squad which reached quarter-finals of the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

During the quarter-final he top-scored for Proteas with 69 runs but it was in vain as West Indies won the match by a narrow margin of 19 runs.

He played a key role in South Africa's triumph over India in the final of the 1996–97 Standard Bank International One-Day Series where he top-scored in the final with 60 runs.

He was also the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 300 runs.

He was a member of the side which claimed the 1996 Pepsi Sharjah Cup which was played between South Africa, Pakistan and India.

Cullinan was a member of the South Africa team that won the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, the only ICC trophy the country has won to date.

He also occasionally gives his insight about the sport through various platforms and calls himself a huge supporter of T20 cricket.

He signed off from domestic first-class cricket with a first innings century in March 2005 and it also turned out to be his final first-class match.

He was also a vocal advocate for the inclusion of more associate nations in ICC tournaments especially in T20 format when he specifically made the point during the 2012 ICC World Twenty20.

He was embroiled in numerous controversies during the latter part of his career including the fallout with the team-mates, fallout with the cricket board for his involvement in the Indian Cricket League.

He grew up in Queenstown and pursued his primary education at the Queen's College Boys' High School.

He started watching the sport of squash from a young age but his father discouraged it by saying you will not make a living out of playing squash but his father recommended him to stick to cricket.

He grew up in apartheid hit South Africa especially when South Africa faced a shortage of cricket matches due to political constraints.

He idolised Graeme Pollock while growing up and calling him a true star.