Wellington, June 21: South African-origin Kruger van Wyk has been named as New Zealand Cricket''s No1 wicket-keeper.
Van Wyke, 32, was yesterday awarded his first national contract, while manager Kim Littlejohn confirmed that the contract was awarded on the back of van Wyk now being considered their No.1 gloveman.
Van Wyk has only kept in three Tests, all against the country of his birth, and while he performed admirably, averaging 24.60 with the bat and keeping tidily, many assumed he was just filling in for the injured B.J. Watling.
“We''re saying that Kruger is our preferred test keeper at the moment. We''re looking at him as the incumbent test keeper,” Stuffz.co.nz quoted Littlejohn, as saying.
“BJ is still coming back from injury so at this stage the job is Kruger''s and BJ, well, we''ll see how things go in the West Indies,” he added.
Littlejohn confirmed that van Wyk had overtaken Watling, who scored his maiden century in his last test before missing the South African series through injury.
© ANI
