Warriors fast bowler Anrich Nortje hopes to reach new heights after he scooped the Most Promising Player of the Year award at the franchise’s awards evening this week.
Nortje, 24, born and brought up in Uitenhage, has seen his career blossom in the last few seasons and will be hoping to put in a few more good performances when he represents the SA A side on a tour to India next month.
Speaking about his award, Nortje said: “Getting the Most Promising Player of the Year award was unexpected, to say the least.
“It is a great feeling to get an award at a Warriors awards dinner, but it is only the start.
“There have been about three seasons of very hard work and it feels like it is only now starting to pay off.”
Nortje said his love for the game had grown in leaps and bounds, so much so that he relished each opportunity he got to be out on the field.
“For me it’s really exciting to wake up on game day, knowing you can go out and have fun, play in a team environment and try to get the upper hand over your opponents.
“It’s something that really gets my blood flowing and adrenaline pumping,” he said.
Last season was Nortje’s first full one across all formats for the Eastern Cape franchise, but he had been in and out of the four-day setup for two seasons prior to that.“My first game I played for the Warriors was during the 2015-2016 season at Port Elizabeth against the Titans in a four-day match.
“Our provincial three-day series had just finished and we were about to put our feet up for a while.
“The Warriors had only three games left in the season and that is when I got the call to say I would be on a tour to Paarl, where I was 12th man but ended up playing the last two games,” he recalled.
Nortje, who will pull on the green and gold of SA A for two four-day Test matches in India, hopes to become a fullyfledged Protea in future, but admits that he would need to put in a lot of hard work and dedication if that dream was to become a reality.
“The A tour is where I want to give it my best and do well.
“With that in mind, I have never played a four-day match in India and what the team require might be completely different to what I’m used to doing,” the lanky fast bowler said.
“I also started playing indoor cricket at age 7 or 8. I would say that is where I started to fall in love with the game,” he said.
A pupil at Laerskool Handhaaf and Hoërskool Brandwag, he played cricket at school, as well as age-group level provincially.
Nortje’s first foray into first-class cricket came only in 2013, when he played in the EP amateur side against Namibia.