George Derek Varnals (24 July 1935 – 9 September 2019) was a South African

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played in three Test matches in the 1964–65 season. The South African cricket commentator Charles Fortune described him as "a compact and correct player with a good range of shots that came more of timing than of power". A right-handed batsman, Varnals played South African domestic

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

, for Eastern Province, Transvaal and Natal, between 1955 and 1965.Derek Varnals
CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 April 2021. Apart from the 1957–58 season, when he averaged more than 50 runs per innings and made his highest score – 151

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

in Eastern Province's total of 267, when he opened the innings against

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and carried his bat – his record was relatively modest until 1964–65. Three centuries in the first half of the 1964–65 season, including one for Natal against the touring MCC side, propelled Varnals into the

South African cricket team The South Africa men's national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa. South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council. T ...

for the first three Tests against England.Derek Varnals

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 26 April 2021. He batted a long way down the order and, although he showed useful adhesion in helping to avert defeat in the second match, his highest score in six innings was only 23. When he was dropped after the third match, he retired from first-class cricket.''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' 2022, pp. 263–64. His only first-class bowling was in the final overs of his final Test match. Varnals later moved to Australia to be closer to his children. He died in

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in September 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varnals, Derek 1935 births 2019 deaths South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Eastern Province cricketers South African Universities cricketers Gauteng cricketers KwaZulu-Natal cricketers Cricketers from Durban