Andre Cornelius Botha (born 12 September 1975) is a former Irish cricketer. He played 55 times in all for Ireland, including the

2005 ICC Trophy The 2005 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament held in Ireland between 1 July and 13 July 2005. It was an international one-day tournament played over 50 overs per side between 12 Associate Members of the International Cricket Council. It served a ...

and the

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in 2004 and 2006. Botha retired in May 2011.

Domestic career

A left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and right-arm medium pace bowler, Botha played provincial cricket for

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, w ...

in his native South Africa. Botha was the resident professional at Clontarf Cricket Club from 1994 until his switch t
North County
in 2000. A prolific batsman at club level, Botha contributed to North County's Irish Senior Cup victories in 2001, 2003,2005 and 2007 as well as garnering four consecutive Leinster Senior League winners' medals between 2003 and 2006.

International career

Esteemed among the leading

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

s in domestic cricket, the newly eligible Botha débuted for his adopted country in Ireland's August 2001

C&G Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

victory over

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, although he started inauspiciously, registering nought with the bat and 1–50 with the ball. A fixture in the Irish team thereafter, Botha's form temporarily deserted him during Ireland's momentous summer of 2005. Selected at #3 in the batting order throughout the group phase of the

, Botha recorded a dismal

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 9.5 for the tournament, twice succumbing on zero. However, his economical bowling contributed eight wickets to the Irish cause, and helped the team (which ultimately finished second in the competition) land a qualifying berth for the

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the 2 ...

. In marked contrast to his ICC Trophy form, the runs flowed freely from Botha's bat during Ireland's conquest of the

2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup The 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup was the second edition of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, a cricket competition for (then) 12 nations from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. All the games were scheduled for three days and were designated ...

. A tournament average of 66.00 encompassed an international career-best 97 against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

at Stormont, and knocks of 78 and 43* in the final victory over

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

. Botha also accounted for eight wickets at 25.50 with his medium-paced bowling during the course of the tournament. Selected for Ireland's inaugural

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at Stormont despite a series of low scores in the preceding C&G Trophy matches, Botha vindicated the selectors' judgement by top-scoring with 52 against a first-rate attack including

Steve Harmison Stephen James Harmison, (born 23 October 1978) is an English former first-class cricketer, who played all formats of the game. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODIs, and 2 T20s. He also played county cricket ...

Liam Plunkett Liam Edward Plunkett (born 6 April 1985) is an English cricketer who bowls right-arm fast medium. He was an England cricket team, England international until 2019, and was part of the squad that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup. He most recently ...

and

Sajid Mahmood Sajid Iqbal Mahmood (Urdu: ساجد اقبال محمود, ''Sājid Iqbāl Maḥmūd''; born 21 December 1981) is a former English cricketer, who played all formats of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played international cr ...

. Since then, Botha has evinced a marked aptitude for One Day Internationals, averaging 39.66 in three ODIs to date, with a top score of 56 achieved against the Netherlands during Ireland's victorious 2006 European Cricket Championship campaign. In August 2006, Botha was named in the 14-man squad which will represent Ireland at both the

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of ...

in Kenya and the Caribbean-hosted World Cup later the same year. He finished the provincial season with an insuperable batting average of 120.20 from ten innings. Botha bowled well in the World Cricket League tournament, taking 13 wickets at an average of 21.30. Only one player took more wickets in the tournament. In Ireland's second match in the 2007 World Cup, Botha achieved excellent bowling figures of 8–4–5–2, helping Ireland to a shock victory over

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In January 2010

Cricket Ireland Cricket Ireland (formerly the Irish Cricket Union) is the national Sport governing body, governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national Ireland cricket team, men' ...

, the governing body for cricket in Ireland, awarded Botha a full-time contract. He was one of six players awarded such contracts with Cricket Ireland, and came just a year after the first professional contracts were awarded to Ireland's cricketers. Before that players were amateurs relying on income from other jobs and playing cricket in their spare time. The contract allowed Botha and the others to focus on cricket, with the aim of improving ahead of the 2011 World Cup. Botha was selected in Ireland's 15-man squad for the 2011 World Cup. In May 2011, Botha announced his retirement from international cricket.

Statistics

Botha is only the fourth Irish player to have achieved the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets. Botha has also taken part in two of Ireland's record partnerships; 360 for the third wicket against UAE with

Eoin Morgan Eoin Joseph Gerard Morgan (born 10 September 1986) is an Irish-born English former cricketer and current commentator. He captained the England cricket team in limited overs cricket from 2015 until his international retirement in June 2022. He ...

in February 2007, and 234 for the sixth wicket against Scotland with

Alex Cusack Alex Richard Cusack (born 29 October 1980) is a former Australian-born-Irish cricketer. A club cricketer for Clontarf, Cusack was a carpenter by trade until he was awarded a professional contract with the Irish Cricket Union in 2009. He played a ...

in August 2007. The 360 with Morgan is also Ireland's highest partnership for any wicket. Botha's 186 against Scotland in August 2007 was the highest individual score for Ireland in a home match. Botha's extraordinary figures of 2/5 of eight overs in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup pool match against Pakistan deserve mention; while taking only two wickets, the figures equalled the record for the most economical eight over spell in the history of the World Cup.World Cup – Best economy rates in an innings
ESPNcricinfo, retrieved 29 March 2009

References

External links

*
North County Cricket Club, Dublin, Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botha, Andre 1975 births Afrikaner people Irish cricketers Irish people of South African descent Ireland One Day International cricketers Ireland Twenty20 International cricketers Living people Griqualand West cricketers Cricketers at the 2007 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup