10 Facts about Alviro Petersen - The self-contained South African batsman

10 Facts about Alviro Petersen – The self-contained South African batsman: Alviro Petersen was a right handed opening batsman who could not do justice to his batting talent. The cool-headed batsman made relatively late entry to the Test cricket at the age of 30, nine year after his professional debut and could cement his place in the Proteas squad only after 2012. However, Petersen suffered in his career because of inconsistency and tough competition from Jacques Rudolph for the opening slot. Petersen, by all means, deserved to play more than the 36 Tests and 21 ODIs he played for South Africa.

1. Birth:

Alviro Petersen was born and raised in the township of Gelvandale, Port Elizabeth. Alviro Petersen attended the same state high school as fellow South African Test batsman Ashwell Prince.

2. Start of his career:

Alviro Petersen started his first-class career in 2001 with the Northern’s cricket team. Alviro Petersen also represented South Africa A before making his ODI debut.

3. Family background:

Alviro Petersen’s father was a taxi driver and a cricket lover. He belongs from a modest family background.

4. International debut:

Alviro Petersen made his ODI debut for South Africa in 2006 in East London and then his Test debut in 2010 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Alviro Petersen made his T20 International debut for South Africa in 2010 at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground, Antigua.

5. Distinctive records:

Alviro Petersen became the third South African to score a hundred on Test debut. Andrew Hudson and Jacques Rudolph are the only two players who had achieved this feat before him. He also holds few excellent records in domestic cricket. Along with K. Wessels and M. van Jaarsveld, he happens to be the only third batsman to have scored a century in each inning of a first-class game three times. Along with his school mate Ashwell Prince, he went on to break a record that had stood for 87 years, to become the highest partnership scored by a Lancashire batting pair. The previous best was of 371 runs made by Frank Watson and George Ernest Tyldesley.

6. Solitary wicket:

Petersen bowls off-spin and has a single international wicket — which is of Sulieman Benn, whom he managed to trap him LBW in a Test at Port of Spain in 2010.

7. First-class cricket:

Petersen has played for seven domestic sides over the course of time in his career: Essex, Glamorgan, Highveld Lions, North West, Northerns, Somerset, and Titans. Currently, he plays and captains the Highveld Lions. After his retirement, he took up a Kolpak deal in English county cricket. Petersen subsequently signed a two-year contract with Lancashire, on 22 January 2015.

8. Retirement:

On 6 January 2015, following South Africa’s victory in the third Test against the West Indies, Petersen announced his retirement from international cricket.

9. Philanthropy:

Petersen started a charitable institution called the Alviro Petersen Foundation in 2013. According to his website, the foundation is “committed to the development and empowerment of disadvantaged communities.”

10. Family:

Petersen and his wife Samantha have an infant son named Jason, who has his own Twitter handle (@JNPetersen2013)!