Christoffel "Christi" Viljoen (born 28 September 1987) is a former cricketer who played for the Namibia national team. He played as a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium-fast. He also played for

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

in New Zealand domestic cricket.

Career

Viljoen made his first-class debut for Namibia in the CSA Provincial Three-Day Challenge competition held in South Africa on 21 January 2010 against

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

. He also made his T20 debut (along with 9 other players in Namibia) against Zimbabwe on 13 February 2010. Opening the bowling with Louis Klazinga, Viljoen took a single wicket (that of

Sikandar Raza Sikandar Raza Butt (; born 24 April 1986) is a Pakistani-born Zimbabwean international cricketer. He is an all-rounder, who bats right-handed and bowls right arm off-spin. He made his international debut for Zimbabwe in May 2013 and is the fir ...

) for seven runs. He played six matches in the tournament, scoring 61 runs from three innings with a highest of 41, and took six wickets at an average of 16.83. After experimenting with a two-division format the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

decided that the 2011–2013 ICC Intercontinental Cup would feature eight teams, including Namibia who were previously in the Shield competition, playing first-class cricket. Namibia played their opening fixture of the Cup in September. Batting at number three Viljoen scored a four-ball duck in the first innings but in the second managed 87 from 136 balls, in the process passing 500 first-class runs in his career and beating his previous highest score in the format. A side made up of some of the leading players from Associate and Affiliate teams was put together to face England in Dubai in January 2012. The three-day match was part of England's preparation for a series against Pakistan later that month. Along with Craig Williams, Viljoen was one of two Namibia players included in the 12-man squad. Coming in to bat at 90/6, Viljoen top-scored with 98 runs from 189 balls against a bowling line-up including James Anderson,

Stuart Broad Stuart Christopher John Broad (born 24 June 1986) is an English former cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team and was One Day and Twenty20 International captain. Broad was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ...

Steven Finn Steven Thomas Finn (born 4 April 1989) is a former English cricketer. He was a right-arm fast bowler, who also bats right-handed. At the age of 16, he became Middlesex County Cricket Club's youngest-ever debutant in first-class cricket. He mad ...

, and

Graeme Swann Graeme Peter Swann (born 24 March 1979) is an English former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. Born in Northampton, he attended Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire. He was primarily a right-arm off-spinner, and also ...

. The UAE hosted the 2012 World Twenty20 Qualifier in March. Namibia progressed to the preliminary finals where they lost to Ireland. With 14 wickets from 9 matches, Viljoen was Namibia's leading wicket-taker in the tournament (equal fourth overall), and scored 48 runs from 5 innings. Shortly after the tournament concluded, Namibia hosted

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the Intercontinental Cup. Namibia won by eight wickets and in the second innings Viljoen finished with career-best bowling figures of 7/61. In January 2018, he was named in Namibia's squad for the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament. He was the joint-leading wicket-taker for Otago in the 2018–19 Super Smash, with thirteen dismissals in seven matches. In March 2019, he was named in Namibia's squad for the

2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two The 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two was an international cricket tournament that took place in April 2019 in Namibia. It was contested by six teams; Canada national cricket team, Canada, Hong Kong national cricket team, Hong Kong, Om ...

tournament. Namibia finished in the top four places in the tournament, therefore gaining

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 ...

(ODI) status. Viljoen made his ODI debut for Namibia on 27 April 2019, against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

, in the tournament's final. In May 2019, he was named in Namibia's squad for the Regional Finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier tournament in Uganda. He made his

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) debut for Namibia against

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

on 20 May 2019. In Namibia's third match of the tournament, against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, Viljoen took his first five-wicket haul in a T20I match, finishing with figures of five wickets for nine runs from his four overs. He finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Regional Finals, with nine dismissals in three matches. However, following the conclusion of the tournament, the

(ICC) suspended Viljoen for four matches, after he breached the ICC's Anti-Racism Code during the match against

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In June 2019, he was one of twenty-five cricketers to be named in Cricket Namibia's Elite Men's Squad ahead of the 2019–20 international season. In September 2019, he was named in Namibia's squad for the

2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier The 2019 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament held during October and November 2019 in the United Arab Emirates to determine the teams that would qualify for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. The six teams finis ...

tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Ahead of the tournament, the

(ICC) named him as the player to watch in Namibia's squad.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Viljoen, Christi 1987 births Living people Namibian Afrikaner people South African expatriates in New Zealand South African people of Dutch descent Cricketers from Pretoria Namibian cricketers Namibia One Day International cricketers Namibia Twenty20 International cricketers Otago cricketers 21st-century Namibian sportsmen