About Alviro Petersen

Alviro Nathan Petersen (born 25 November 2018) is a former South African international cricketer who played for South African sides, Titans and Highveld Lions and Glamorgan, Essex, Somerset and Lancashire in England. A right-handed batsman, he has represented South Africa in all formats, Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 cricket. He captained South Africa ‘A’, Highveld Lions and Glamorgan County Cricket Club. He is known as the most successful Lions captain in the franchise era, where he led and produced no less than 10 international cricketers for South Africa and won several trophies and made 3 champions leagues for the franchise.

Alviro Petersen

Career:

Petersen was born in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth in a suburb called Gelvandale, the same suburb that fellow South African cricketer Ashwell Prince come from. He started his first-class career in 2001, representing Northern Titans. He played for the SA National Academy and South Africa ‘A’ before he broke into the South African National team (Proteas) in 2006 after he was South Africa’s leading batsman in Australia during the Emerging Players Tournament.

In 2008/09 he broke several first-class records, amongst them, the most runs in a season (held by HD Ackerman), the most hundreds in a season (6) held by BA Richards (1969/70), MJ Proctor (1970/71) and PN Kirsten (1976/77). He also became the first player in South Africa to score 2 centuries in a match twice in the same season in first-class cricket.

In 2009/10 he was the leading run-scorer for the Proteas against England in the ODI series and was selected in the Test squad to India. He made his test debut on 14 February 2010 against India at Eden Gardens, Kolkata and became the 3rd South African to score a century on test debut after, Andrew Hudson and Jacques Rudolph. He also became the first player in the world to score a century in his first innings of a test and bowl a maiden over including a wicket in his first over of test cricket. Later in 2010, Petersen played for Kings of Khulna in Bangladesh’s NCL Twenty20 tournament.

Meanwhile, Petersen signed for Glamorgan County Cricket Club for the 2011 English county season, replacing Jamie Dalrymple as the county’s captain. Petersen was Glamorgan’s top run-scorer in every competition. He scored his first double hundred in first class cricket (210) against Surrey at the Oval and was named Glamorgan’s player of the year. He returned to South Africa at the end of the county season and amassed 188 runs against the Dolphins at the Wanderers.

Petersen was dropped from South Africa’s home Test series against Australia and was replaced by Jacques Rudolph by incoming coach Gary Kirsten. After a string of good performances for the Lions, he was selected to play against the Australians for South Africa ‘A’ and scored a century on what many described as an unplayable pitch. Later that season he was recalled to the South African test team against Sri-Lanka and scored a century on his return.

Petersen then joined Essex in 2012 and Somerset in 2013 and 2014 as an overseas player. In 2013, Petersen launched his Foundation, the Alviro Petersen Foundation who aim to assist disadvantaged communities. His Foundation sponsor schools in disadvantaged communities and pay school fees to 3 school teams who participate in the annual Alviro Petersen Foundation cricket challenge. The Foundation also educate on average 3500 students annually on drug awareness through workshops in schools.

On 6 January 2015, following South Africa’s victory in the third test against the West Indies, Petersen announced his retirement from international cricket. Petersen then signed a 2-year contract with English County, Lancashire on 22 January 2015.

During the 2015 County Season, Petersen and Ashwell Prince broke the Lancashire record and amassed the 13th highest partnership in first class cricket in the world when they scored 501 runs for the 3rd wicket against Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay. Petersen scored 286 against his former County and Ashwell Prince 261 runs.

In the 2015/16 South African domestic one-day competition, Petersen broke the SA record and equalled the world record with Kumar Sangakarra for scoring 4 hundred in 4 consecutive innings. He also became the only player in the world to score 5 one-day centuries in 6 innings. He was named the SA domestic one-day player of the year and his team Highveld Lions won the one-day cup that same year.

In the 2016 County season Petersen completed the treble when he scored 103* against Leicestershire in a t20 game, thereby scoring a century in every format of professional cricket (first-class, one-day and t20)

In 2015/16 Petersen reported corruption and match-fixing to authorities, but was subsequently sanctioned by CSA for 2 years for not fully disclosing all his knowledge. The players who he reported was banned for between 7 and 20 years for accepting bribes to fix cricket games.

Petersen made the most of his time away from cricket and studied Strategic Business Management, International Sports Law, Sport and Recreation Management, Applied Sports Psychology and is currently in an advanced stage of his LLB Law degree. He is a qualified Peak Performance coach.

Petersen scored 24 153 professional runs with 55 centuries and 113 half centuries. He is married to Samantha and they have a son (Jason) and a daughter (Hayley). He is the 73rd test player for South Africa, and always wore shirt number 73. He is also a director of his private cricket academy, the Alviro Petersen Cricket School.