Dean Elgar

thumb|Dean Elgar Dean Elgar (born 11 June 1987) is a retired South African professional cricket left-handed opening batter. He represented South Africa from 2012 to 2024, scoring 5,347 career runs in Test matches, the eighth-highest of all time for the team. Elgar is the second batter to carry the bat on three occasions in Tests. He served as the regular Test captain for South Africa from 2021 until his international retirement in 2024. Quotes Every cricketer is going to experience this in their career. I've been fortunate enough to have a pretty long career of 21 years. It's my time now to call it quits on a pretty long and successful career, At the end of the season, I will be retiring from all forms of professional cricket. I feel it's the right time for me, and more importantly for my family I've got a young family back home and they need me more than anything now. They are far greater than any cricket team I could ever represent My goal was always to fulfill the three years. There were maybe occasions within the three years that I thought maybe I should [leave] at that time Maybe on the field we haven't achieved as much as I would have thought but also you're playing against a lot of good teams with equal strengths It was always going to be tough to have three very successful seasons but Essex has been brilliant for me and a good way of signing off a career. Essex's Elgar - 'It's right time to quit for my family, August 2026,BBC Sport by Matthew Cresswell I think we went through two or three different phases as a team where we had retirements, then injuries, and then new players coming in. It's been like that for the last five years. And then we also had a change of coach and that requires the buy-in of players, so it has been a little bit of a roller coaster. Hopefully it will settle down, for the players' sanity. He is quite reliant on players he has worked with in the past and has used that to fast-track the team culture. It hasn't been that easy for him, and I think he is still trying to finalise a Test XI, or finalise a squad of players to work with. The captaincy is not like going for a job interview, where you hand in your CV. You don't put your hand up for it. It's something that's decided by someone else and it's who they think is the best person for the job. It's good for players to have confidence and back their abilities, but when you do that, you can put yourself in an exposed position. There is always responsibility on a player that has been around for a few years. And even if you feel like you as a person are doing okay, everything else around you is failing. We were inconsistent as a team. I felt anxious to make an extra play, and there were times when I thought if I just hung around a little longer I could have broken the opposition Dean Elgar: 'In 2012, we had big, imposing guys; now you can't say boo to a goose',May 2020, Cricinfo by Firdose Moonda As a leader, he has come leaps and bounds. There is a lot of responsibility on Temba’s shoulders being given such a big honour to captain the white-ball teams In Test cricket, as a player, he needs to work hard on his game but he is just one innings away from realising his potential as a Test batter. He is a very talented batter and needs to turn those 30s-40s into hundreds. And then, he can be on his way. He is not far from being a very good Test cricketer. The situation isn’t ideal but within the bubble, things will be good for the guys. I am pretty confident. People left because they weren’t given opportunities in South Africa. Every player has a choice and they actually took a massive gamble in going there and it has paid off for them. I don’t see any problem with that. If a young talented player feels they have to go overseas to explore opportunities, so be it. From my childhood, I guess. I have always had to work hard. Back in my teenage days, going against adults, I would be stubborn, refuse to let them get me out. Even in the backyard, I would refuse to let the adults get me out. Childhood plays a massive role in the kind of person you are. I have a job to do. My job is there to go out, get runs, and get my team in a position to win . My character off the field is totally different to the character on the field. I am not there to make friends on the field. I am not going to let anyone walk over me. As a cricketer in South Africa, you must be able to have those conversations with the guys. You can’t be in a bubble. It happens by having conversations with players, understanding them, the issues. The conversations we have had in the past have been good from an educational point of view. It’s still a work in progress. We mustn’t stop learning about each other. We have to sit down and listen more. Listening is such an important skill in my role. Also speak, so that they understand you. Be honest in your communication. Dean Elgar: ‘I have never run away from pressure, it brings the best out of me as a person’, Dec 2023, Indian Express by External links Category:Cricketers from South Africa Category:Living people Category:1987 births