Albert van der Merwe (born 1 June 1979) is a South African-born Irish

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er. Van der Merwe is right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

who bowls right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which sp ...

and who played international cricket for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was born in Bellville,

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

. He was educated at Huguenot High School, Wellington, Cape Province. Van der Merwe captained the North West University (Pukke) (formerly known as Potchefstroomse Universiteit) to their maiden SA University title in 2001. He was also part of the 2001 side that won the South African National Club Championships. Van der Merwe has played cricket for Irish club sides Derriaghy, The Hills and YMCA CC. Van der Merwe announced his retirement from international cricket in 2013. He is currently head coach of Leinster Lightning, one of 3 interprovincial teams in the Irish Domestic First Class set up. Van der Merwe made his

List-A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut for Ireland against West Indies A during their tour of Ireland, where he played both matches against the tourists. Van der Merwe was a member of Ireland's

2010 ICC World Cricket League Division One The 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division One was a cricket tournament which took place in July 2010 in the Netherlands. It formed part of the World Cricket League competition administered by the International Cricket Council, the international g ...

winning squad. During the tournament, he made his

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

debut against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Van der Merwe was selected in Ireland's 15-man squad for the 2011 World Cup, but did not play in the tournament. In January 2012

Cricket Ireland Cricket Ireland, officially the Irish Cricket Union, is the national governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national men's and women's cricket teams. It also org ...

increased the number of player contracts to 23 across three categories, and van der Merwe was given a category C contract. In April 2019,

appointed him as the Talent Pathway Manager and Coach of the national team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Der Merwe, Albert 1979 births Cricketers from Cape Town Living people Irish people of South African descent Irish cricketers Ireland One Day International cricketers Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup Irish cricket coaches Leinster Lightning cricketers