Charl Langeveldt

Charl Langeveldt Biography

Charl Langeveldt is a former South African cricketer, who played for many years in all the formats of the game. He was born on 17 December 1974 in Stellenbosch in South Africa and was a right arm fast medium bowler and an important member of the side during his career.

For a long time, Charl Langeveldt was adjusting life between first class cricket and his job as a prison warder at Drakenstein prison, which was not very far from his provincial home. He grabbed the eyes of the national selectors because of his ability to move the ball and maintain decent pace at the same time.

Debut

Charl made his debut for the international side on 14 October 2001 against Kenya. He conceded 45 runs in 10 overs and picked up 2 wickets.

His test debut was years later in 2005 against England on 2 January in Cape Town. He picked up his first five wicket haul in the very first innings and conceded just 46 runs. However, he could not pick up any wicket in the second innings.

Rise to Glory

He rose to prominence in his career in 2004 as he came back and took 3 wickets for 31 runs in Sri Lanka. Shortly after, Charl bowled one of the most impressive spells of his career as he picked up 3 wickets for just 17 runs against Bangladesh in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy.

One of the best moments of his career came in the third ODI against West Indies at Barbados in 2005. He took a hat-trick out of nowhere in the last over which resulted in one of the best finals ever and guided SA to a one-run win.

Low points

Followed by this, Charl had quite a disappointing run on the tour to India and also in Australia. Because of this, he did not get the opportunity to play against Australia at home.

He was however included in the side for Champions Trophy. After this, he was seen struggling very badly against India and Australia at home.

Club career

Langeveldt played for many clubs during his career. In the year 2008, he joined Derbyshire as a Kolpak player. He also played for Kent as an overseas player in 2011 Friends Life T20.

Charl also played in the Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders.

Records

There are not many great achievements to Charl’s name. One of the biggest highlight of his career was the hat-trick against West Indies. He was the first South African ever to take an ODI hat-trick.

Also, he was the third South African to take a 5-wicket haul in a World Cup match.

Retirement

Charl’s ODI career lasted for almost 9 years. He played his last ODI against Pakistan on 31 October 2010. His Test career was quite short. Although he was selected in the test side in 2008, but he opted out of it due to the controversy behind it. After his retirement, he served as the bowling coach for the national side.