Wessels bides his time

Riki Wessels

Northamptonshire wicketkeeper-batsman Riki Wessels has scored 145 in a three-day match against Cardiff UCCE but is still struggling to hold down a regular first-team place.

With Ireland’s Niall O’Brien - a more gifted wicketkeeper - in the Northants squad, Wessels has often played as just a batsman, but after a run of low scores he has been dropped.

His mammoth innings, albeit not first-class, opening the batting shows that he still has the ability to make big runs, something he also showed in Sri Lanka’s domestic cricket over the winter.

“I was the second leading run-scorer behind Tillakaratne Dilshan,” he told ecb.co.uk. “I kept in the last three or four matches and was involved in a double hat-trick - three out of the six catches I took.”

Having to compete with O’Brien has made Wessels mentally stronger and determined to hold down a place in the side.

“At times last year the ‘keeping spot was up for grabs week in, week out,” he admitted.

“Obviously I’d like to maintain a place, either keeping or just batting. When I haven’t been keeping, I have been lucky enough to be in the team for my batting.”

However, the dual role of wicketkeeper-batsman is the one Wessels would most like to have, as he feels it gives him two bites of the cherry.

Wessels has often played as a batsman only © Getty Images

“It is harder than most people think,” he confessed. “It weighs up. When you haven’t got runs it is nice to get the gloves on and if you do something special with the gloves you can forget about the batting.”

The hunger to succeed is clearly in Wessels' blood, after he left his native South Africa - although he was born in Australia - to play for Northants when his father was coach and expressed his desire to qualify for England.

His father, Kepler, did a similar thing when he left South Africa due to apartheid and played for Australia, before returning to lead the country of his birth when they were re-admitted to international cricket.

Wessels junior has resigned himself to the comparisons made between him and his father, and the constant jibes of nepotism, saying: “I still get that now. It is always going to be case.

“Whether or not my father is around I am still going to be getting the stick because of who he is. It comes with the territory.”

But in true fighting spirit, Wessels has his own thoughts about the progression of his cricketing career.

“We are two different players,” he said. “I have had a few sledges off a few of the players, but it happens.

“My father is a different style of player to what I am. He didn’t have Twenty20 cricket to cope with, for a start.

“I just look at it as if I could be half as good as he was, I’d still be a great player.”