Cricket
Jansen twins working towards the Proteas dream─── MORGAN PIEK 10:14 Fri, 03 Nov 2023
“We are working on it and it's just a case of both of us being at the right place at the right time and hopefully one day we can do that.”
The tall left-arm fast bowler of the Proteas, Marco Jansen, is living the dream by representing South Africa at the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, and it hardly gets any bigger than Sunday’s upcoming game against the unbeaten host nation at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
This match will certainly be one of the biggest to date at the World Cup and in-form and charged up Jansen will have a big role to play for South Africa. With 16 wickets to date, Jansen, is South Africa’s top-wicket at the World Cup and among the very best of the competition.
The lanky seamer does have a bigger dream and that is to open the bowling for South Africa a long with his identical twin brother, Duan Jansen, who is currently plying his trade for the North West Dragons in Potchefstroom.
The Klerksdorp-born twins have spent the majority of their lives playing together and after the school they both headed to Bloemfontein where they represented the Knights at a stage. Albeit, they hardly represented the Free State together.
Marco has certainly progressed much faster than Duan, but it’s not impossible for them to one day represented South Africa in the same game. They are both just about 6 ft 9 in tall (give or take), and both are left-arm seamers.
Marco Jansen (left, and representing the Sunrisers Hyderabad), Duan Jansen (middle, representing the Mumbai Indians), and Tristan Stubbs at the IPL earlier in 2023. - Cricinfo
They have already lived out one big dream and that was to play together in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where both played for the Mumbai Indians. Marco has also represented the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Ahead of Sunday’s massive game against India at the World Cup, Jansen, told OFM Sport that playing together for South Africa remains the dream and it is something they are working towards, but it’s a matter of the stars aligning.
“We've dreamt about a lot of things that we want to do together to be honest,” said Jansen.
“That is definitely still a dream, but I don't want to elaborate too much, but my brother and I have worked so hard together for the most of our lives. Whenever I don't do too well, he feels it, if that makes sense, and whenever he doesn't do well, I feel it 100%.
“So, even though I'm sitting here in India, I've watched about 80% of his One-Day Cup games back home. I watched the final, in which they didn't do too well, but that's fine.
“It is still definitely one dream that we would want to make a reality. There is already one dream that became a reality and that was for both of us to play in the Indian Premier League, which is really nice. But the top dream is definitely for us to play for our country together.
“We are working on it and it's just a case of both of us being in the right place at the right time and hopefully one day we can do that.”
Sunday’s match between India and South Africa at Eden Gardens is scheduled to get underway at 10:30.
Morgan Piek OFM Sport
