Willem Maré van der Merwe (20 July 1960 – 31 March 2025) was a South African orthopaedic surgeon and

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. van der Merwe was a professional cricketer in South Africa from 1978 to 1987, playing predominantly for

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

and

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

. He later played

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 ...

in England for

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and became a surgeon. He served as president of the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS).

Early life and cricket career

van der Merwe was born in

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...

in July 1960 and studied medicine at the

University of the Free State The University of the Free State (; Sotho language, Sesotho: ''Yunivesithi ya Freistata'') is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State (province), Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It wa ...

. He made his debut in

for

against

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 ...

at Blomfontein in the 1978–79 Castle Bowl. He played first-class cricket for Orange Free State until the 1984–85 Castle Bowl, making 26 appearances. Playing as an

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 ...

, he scored 622 runs for Orange Free State, at an

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 19.43 and a high score of 96. With his right-arm

medium-fast Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

bowling, he took 93 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 23.76. He took

five wickets in an innings In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter. Taking ...

on three occasions, with best figures of 5 for 40 against Boland in the 1983–84 Castle Bowl. It was for Orange Free State that he made his debut in List A one-day cricket in the 1981–82 Datsun Shield, with van der Merwe making five List A appearances between the 1981–82 and 1984–85 seasons. He moved to

for the 1985–86 seasons, playing nine first-class matches for the Western Province B team and making two List A appearances for the main Western Province team. He scored 320 runs in his nine matches, averaging 22.85 and with a high score of 79

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 ...

, while with the ball he took 34 wickets at an average of 20.82, with best figures of 5 for 35. His final first-class match in South Africa came for the South African Defence Force cricket team against

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

in September 1987, when he was conscripted in the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

Oxford University and medical career

He travelled to England in 1989 to study social studies at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he attended St Anne's College. While studying at Oxford, he made six first-class appearances for

in 1990, and played for the combined

Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team Combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket teams were formed at intervals between 1839 and 1992, often playing against touring teams. Mostly the team consisted of students who were current members of either Cambridge University Cricket Cl ...

against the touring

New Zealanders New Zealanders are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common History of New Zealand, history, Culture of New Zealand, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citizens of Ne ...

. He scored 272 runs for Oxford in his six matches and averaged 68.00, making three half centuries in the process. In addition to playing first-class cricket while at Oxford, he also appeared in four List A matches for the

Combined Universities cricket team The British Universities cricket team was a cricket team whose players were drawn from university students studying in Great Britain. The team played under the title of Combined Universities until 1995. The team played List A cricket from 1975 t ...

in the 1990 Benson & Hedges Cup. Returning to South Africa, van der Merwe made no further appearances in senior domestic cricket. He has become a noted

orthopaedic surgeon Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, he served as president of the South African Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine and as the international president of ISAKOS, a post he held from 2019–21. In March 2025, van der Merwe died of esophageal cancer at the age of 64.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:van der Merwe, Willem 1960 births 2025 deaths Sportspeople from Rustenburg Cricketers from North West (South African province) University of the Free State alumni South African cricketers Free State cricketers Western Province cricketers Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Oxford University cricketers British Universities cricketers Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers 20th-century South African physicians South African orthopaedic surgeons 21st-century South African physicians 20th-century surgeons