Every young cricketer has an idol they worshipped while coming through the ranks. Durban’s Super Giants batter Matthew Breetzke is no different.
Breetzke adored his newly appointed Super Giants’ captain Quinton de Kock growing up. And the adulation only intensified when Breetzke received a national team call-up after he had barely matriculated from the Eastern Cape's cricket nursery Grey High School.
“I have looked up to him (De Kock) for a very long time… since he came on the scene in 2013/14,” Breetzke said.
“He is obviously a keeper and an opening batter, and I was also a keeper and an opening batter. I always loved the way he played. I’ve played against him a couple of times, but now to be playing with him is going to be really cool.
“When I walked into that (Proteas) changeroom back then, I was 19, and I thought they were superstars. But when you actually chat to them, they are really nice guys.”
Breetzke certainly provides Durban’s Super Giants coach Lance Klusener with plenty of options after moving to a new middle-order role during this season's CSA T20 Challenge in Potchefstroom. The success gained at No 5 showed that the dashing right-hander was able to adapt to different match situations and not just simply blast away the top of the order.
“It proved that I can be versatile. I still enjoy batting at the top, but coming in the middle order where you have to assess and play the spinners well, I really enjoyed that, but I am prepared to bat wherever I am needed,” he said.
Furthermore, Breetzke's experience of playing his entire career at St George's Park in Gqeberha where the pitch is appreciably slower than the rest of the country and offers the spinners significant purchase will be a great asset to the Super Giants.
The Kingsmead - home of the Super Giants - surface has equally transformed into a spinners paradise as was notable when the CSA T20 Challenge was held at the venue in 2020.
Klusener has therefore loaded his team with high quality spinners in the form of Proteas duo Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer as well as local Dolphins’ captain Prenelan Subrayen in appreciation of the expected conditions.
However, he also needed to secure batters that are able to score runs in the virtual subcontinental conditions, and Breetzke is certainly technically well-equipped to do so.
“I was hoping to get into a team. I was thinking maybe MI Cape Town or Sunrisers Eastern Cape would go for me, but then Durban (Super Giants) went for me and I was so stoked,” Breetzke said.
“I think because I’ve played at St George’s Park for so long now, it will set me up nicely for Kingsmead. The average score at Centurion may be 220, but at Kingsmead it's 160/170. It’s definitely about playing the conditions because the spinners will come into play.”
Durban’s Super Giants open their SA20 campaign with a home game at Kingsmead against the Joburg Super Kings on Wednesday, 11 January 2023.
All 33 matches will be televised live on SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa with Viacom - India's newest satellite network - broadcasting the matches in India.