Erwee’s career trajectory on the up-and-up

FROM a middle order batsman during his academy days to an award winning opening batsman for the Hollywoodbets Dolphins, Sarel Erwee has come a long way and his recent accolades culminated in a call up to the South Africa A side to tour India in July.

SJ, as he is called by his team mates, acknowledges that his cricket career has taken longer to blossom than he would have liked, but the amount of support that he received from his loved ones and those closest to him, fuelled his perseverance.

“My cricket career does actually feel like it has taken ‘forever’ to kick off, however for me it was all about the process and if I followed that process it was either going to happen as soon as possible or it was going to take a bit of time. Luckily, I had family and friends that supported me in my cricket journey, so whether it took two or three years or the many years that it has actually taken me, it has a lot to do with the support that I had and I was always going to keep striving to reach the pinnacle,” the hard-hitting opener said candidly.

Regardless of the support and the dream for a big break in his career, the 28 year-old had to come to terms with the fact that, cricket might not give him enough to put food on the table and had some tough decisions to make.

“There came a time in my career, probably three years ago when I actually did decide that I was giving up cricket at the end of the season,” he admitted.

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At that time, SJ was still playing for KZN Inland and he felt as though his career had come to a stand-still – and age was not on his side.

“To be honest, I was not progressing in my career – I had made my debut for the Dolphins during the 2013/14 season and thereafter things went silent for the remainder of the year. So for me it felt like my career was stagnant and I was getting older so I thought maybe I should accept this as my reality.”

Thankfully, that very same year he had thought of throwing in the towel, Erwee made another appearance for the Dolphins and due to his excellent performance and consistency through that season, he was rewarded with a contract.

Erwee has amassed just under 4000 runs in his first-class career with a highest score of 200, credits his success to a pool of people whom he looks up to and have helped shape his career, amongst those are Divan Van Wyk, Shane Burger, Imraan Khan and an England cricketer, Jason Roy.

The SA A will depart for the India tour four-day series late in July.

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