The heftily built Langeveldt is one of the cricketers with a very queer work experience. He worked as a prison warden at the Drankenstein prison just north of Cape Town in his native province. He was first noticed for the ability to swing the ball both ways at more than a decent pace and later on in his career, also exhibited a skill to bowl reverse swinging toe crushers. These attributes were too salivating for the South African selectors in spite of being spoilt for choices as far as pacers were concerned. Langeveldt was first selected for the ODIs against Kenya in 2001 and he didn't disappoint picking up two top order wickets on his debut. He followed that up with a 4-21 against the same side forcing selectors to include him in the 15 man squad for their World Cup campaign in 2003. Although he got to play just the one game in the event, he paid back the faith invested in him by performing solidly against teams like England and Sri Lanka in the years to come. But probably his most prolific work till date came in the Caribbean series in 2004-05 where in one of the matches, he conjured up a hat-trick leading his team to a one run victory over the hosts.

On the back of such strong shows, Langeveldt was rewarded with a Test Cap in 2005 and made his debut against the touring English side in his home ground Cape Town. He impressed immediately picking up a five wicket haul in the first innings. Post this, he was in and out of the side for some unknown reasons, but finally got another big break when he was named in the South African squad for the 2007 World Cup which took place in the Caribbean. He enjoyed bowling in such conditions and with his effective reverse swing, he finished as South Africa's leading wicket taker. In early 2008 he was picked for the tour to India, but rumors of him being selected on the basis of a quota policy hurt him and he signed a Kolpak deal with the English county side Derbyshire. This led to doubts over his international future, but Langeveldt impressed his English employers and on the basis of strong performances in the Friends Provident T20, also managed to get an IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders and then moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2011.

He went on to represent his South African franchise Cape Cobras in the 2011 edition of the Champions League T20 and showed that he still hasn't lost the knack of picking up wickets consistently. What the future lies in store for him, is difficult to predict as South Africa are in no dearth of young fast bowlers. But whether they might match up to the guile and experience of this burly man from Cape town remains to be seen. Langeveldt is yet to announce his retirement and he continues playing first class cricket for Cape Cobras.

Fact: Langeveldt was the South African Player of the year in 2007 and the International Pro20 cricketer of the year in 2011.


By Siddharth Prabhakar
As of April 2014