“I’ve come a long way, I wasn’t strong enough, I didn’t understand my action and how hard I must train. I tend to over train which was not good at all.”– Wiaan Mulder On Lockdown Series Episode 11.
Wiaan Mulder is only 22-years-old and already is a Test cricketer and has featured in ODI cricket for South Africa at a tender age of 19.
The young man who started playing franchise cricket as a school boy in matric has had a lot of success which has been halted by injuries in the past 18 months or so.
“I’ve had a back injury this season so I’ve worked quite closely with Janine and Andrew Grey,” said Mulder exclusively to Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
“It’s been a quite frustrating time as well. I started off at 19 making my ODI debut, when you’re 19 years old and you get the opportunity to play for the Proteas you don’t want to go anywhere else.
“And then I’ve been struck with injuries, I’ve had back injuries, I’ve had ankle injuries and every time it seems like I play well there’s an injury that keeps me back.
“A lot of the start of my career getting the chance to play for the Proteas was being at the right place at the right time. The world and specifically SA was looking for a Jacques Kallis and at that stage I think I was closest one who could bat and bowl.
“And I had potential. I was very very raw and I was definitely not the finished product and [I’m] still not.
“Then a year later I made my Test debut and since then I’ve pretty much played about 20 games due to injury. It’s been absolutely terrible but it’s part of the whole growth and my personal journey.”
Some people are skeptical about ‘throwing’ a promising youngster into higher levels of cricket regardless of talent, emphasizing that a cricketer needs to go through all the ranks and learn his game.
But Mulder’s career was the opposite of that. He’s had to learn a lot about his game and about life through being given a chance to play at the highest level at a very young age.
“I never had injuries at school. I’ve come a long way, I wasn’t strong enough, I didn’t understand my action and how hard I must train. I tend to over train which was not good at all,” explained Mulder.
“You kind of learn your game as you go, especially as a young guy you make a lot of mistakes and you have to learn as quickly as you can. Sometimes some learnings take longer than others, like for me I really need to work smarter and not as hard.
“Mentally it’s been incredibly hard. I’ve had a lot of support through Janine and Andrew Grey they’ve kept me going through all of this.
“Morne Morkel has helped me so much in understanding that this is part of the journey, passing on what he’s been through. And Dale Steyn they’ve also kind of passed on how difficult it has been for them over the last while because they both train with Janine.
“Morne actually took me to Janine and he said: ‘listen this is the best in the business she’s going to help you out’ and Andrew is obviously an incredible trainer.
“They’ve helped me get stronger and understanding what’s going on with my body and why I’m getting injured.
“If there’s something I’ve learnt out of all these injuries is that you need to find a way or people around you who will firstly support you but also carry you through the tough times because there’s so many tough times.
“If it wasn’t for my family I don’t know where I’d be mentally. Also I’ve started to study which has helped me to see that there’s a lot more than cricket in this world and that I’m a little bit more than cricket because often you get trapped to play for the Proteas.
“Those are the learnings I’ve taken out of this injury,” Mulder concluded.
For more on what the youngster had to say, click on the link below:
