Batsman Jason van Dyk told Fen Regis Trophies that he is aiming to play professional cricket in England following his record-breaking 220 innings for Nonington Cricket Club.
Van Dyk joined the Kent Cricket League Division Two side this summer from South Africa as the club’s designated overseas player. He made headlines earlier this summer as he broke the club’s record innings by hitting 220, helping Nonington chase down Whitstable’s 296 runs.
The 19-year-old’s incredible innings included 16 sixes and 19 boundaries though it doesn’t top Van Dyk’s personal records, having previously hit 257 runs. There is clearly a lot of potential and expectation in the young man, who plays his cricket back home for Bedfordview Cricket Club in South Africa’s top division.
Playing in England
Van Dyk, who is affectionately called ‘Virgil’ by his teammates because of the similarity of his surname to that of Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk, is experiencing his first taste of English cricket this summer. He did not have to look too far to seek counsel on coming to England, with several of his Nonington teammates having already sampled the English game.
“At my club in South Africa, a few of them came over a few years ago,” he said. “I asked them about [what it’s like to play in England].
“They told me about how the pitches play and the weather conditions.”
He added: “It’s very different [playing in England]. The pitches in South Africa are a lot quicker and it doesn’t swing as much. It’s more difficult [to play] here.”
Scoring 220, off 132 balls, in a senior match at the age of 19 is a clear indication that Van Dyk is acclimatising just fine to the conditions over here. Not only does the teenager, who bases much of his game on South African batting legend AB de Villiers, plan to return to England in 2023 he hopes to move here more permanently in the future.
“I’d love to move here and play professional cricket in England,” he admitted. “I just hope to be playing professional cricket.”
Record-Breaker
Whatever Van Dyk goes on to achieve in his still fledgling career, his name will go down in the record books at Nonington for his record 220 innings. You might expect that closing in on a club record, which previously stood at 169 would come with a certain amount of pressure, though the youngster admits that he was not aware of what he had achieved until he was told.
“I wasn’t aware of the club record,” Van Dyk said. “I wasn’t focused on the runs…I just wanted to chase the score down!”
Van Dyk is top of the highest-scoring innings charts in the Kent Cricket League for the 2022 season and looks likely to stay there for the remainder of the season. As well as scoring vital runs, it isn’t just with the bat that Van Dyk has proven to be a handy addition for Nonington
The South African has taken 23 wickets this season (at the time of writing), doubling up as a spin-bowler. Despite enjoying success with the ball in hand, having only recently begun, Van Dyk classifies himself as a batsman first and foremost.
“I’m a batsman,” he exclaimed. “I used to play as a wicket-keeper, but then I stopped doing that and started bowling two or three years ago.”
With such a clear natural talent for the game, both batting and bowling, there is every reason to believe that Van Dyk is more than capable of realising his dream of playing professionally in England, as well as following in the footsteps of his idol De Villiers in breaking into international cricket for South Africa.
