Kepler Wessels

Kepler Christoffel Wessels completed his BA through Unisa in 1987.

Bloemfontein-born Kepler Wessels remains the only player in Test cricket history to have scored over 1,000 runs for two different countries: Australia and South Africa. An unapologetic Afrikaner in South Africa’s English-speaking cricket milieu, he was inevitably positioned as a talented outsider. Wessels’ batsmanship began to peak in an era when the sports boycott against apartheid barred South Africa from competing in international sport, and he became a “cricket mercenary”. He joined the Australian World Series team in 1978 and remained in Australia when it ended, making his official Test debut for Australia in 1982. Later, he would represent Australia against South Africa, and South Africa against England, in matches that defied anti-apartheid boycotts. He returned home just before the international sports ban was lifted and captained South Africa during its Cricket World Cup readmission debut in March 1992. He also urged white South Africans to vote “yes” in that month’s referendum on ending apartheid.

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