Charl Willoughby

At one stage Charl Willoughby looked like he could prove a valuable addition to a South African attack that sometimes struggles because of a lack of variety. Tall and athletic and blessed with a clean bowling action, he bowls pacy, swinging, left-arm deliveries which are an asset to any captain. Willoughby, who counts Berkshire among the teams he has represented, toiled unnoticed by the national selectors in provincial cricket for six seasons before he was named in the South African squad that went to Sharjah in 1999-2000. He played in just one of a possible five matches, a dead rubber against Pakistan, and performed credibly enough in taking 2 for 39. But Willoughby's international career went no further until the South Africa A tour of West Indies in 2000-01. He took his chance and claimed 10 wickets at 24.30 in three first-class matches. He made his Test debut against Bangladesh at Chittagong early in 2003, but soon faded from the Test arena. He played county cricket for Leicestershire in 2005 and joined Somerset for the 2006 season. He is not registered as an overseas player because of the Kolpak ruling and took an impressive 66 wickets for Somerset in 2006 before helping them to promotion in 2007. When you take into account some of the pitches he has to bowl on at Taunton, his statistics are even more impressive.
Neil Manthorp September 2009