South African International all rounder Johan van der Wath and Durham Dynamos quick bowler Mitchell Claydon will play for the Canterbury Wizards in the HRV Cup this season.
Johan van der Wath has developed into an outstanding allrounder, capable of lively pace bowling and powerful hitting in the middle order.
He was a regular in the South African one day side between 2006 and 2007 and was selected in the South African World Cup Twenty20 side in 2007 playing in all their matches.
However his international career was ended when he signed for the Indian Cricket League where he played for two seasons, being selected in the World XI.
He has had stints with Sussex and Northamptonshire in the English County Championship. In 2009, he was an important team member of the Northants SteelbacksTwenty20 Cup squad that got to the finals day at Edgbaston. During the group stages he won the match against Worcestershire Royals scoring the 22 needed in the last over that kept Northamptonshire's winning run going.[4] In that season he took over 50 first class wickets and scored just under 500 runs.
He is currently opening the bowling for the Knights in the South African domestic 40 over competition.
Van der Wath will be available for the Wizards for a minimum of 7 matches dependent on how far his domestic team progresses in their competition in South Africa.
Bob Carter was thrilled to secure the services of van der Wath. "Johan is a destructive Twenty20 player capable of opening the bowling and hitting the ball out of the park with bat in hand. He would have played a lot more international cricket were it not for his foray into the Indian Cricket League and he comes to us with big raps from Alan Donald who has worked with him previously. I look forward to him teaming up with our Wizards players in a combination that will I’m sure entertain the crowds and hopefully win us matches."
Australian born fast bowler Mitchell Claydon is a key part of the Durham Dynamos bowling attack. In English domestic Twenty 20 competitions he has taken 21 wickets in the last two seasons including being the second highest wicket taker in 2009.
Claydon is well known to Canterbury Cricket Network Coach, Paul Wiseman, who played three seasons with him at Durham. Wiseman describes him as an "aggressive, quick, new ball bowler capable of getting quality batsmen out."
Lee Germon, the Canterbury Cricket CEO, said that signing both Claydon and van der Wath provides the Wizards with the ability to select two overseas players for each HRV Cup match. "It also completes our strategy of having at least four overseas players qualified for the Wizards if we do make the Champions League"
The four overseas players now signed for the Wizards are:
Shaun Tait Australia & South Australia
Ryan ten Doeschate Netherlands & Essex
Johan van der Wath South Africa & the Knights
Mitchell Claydon Durham
