Ken Borland

Heino Kuhn anchored the Unlimited Titans during their phenomenal late run to a share of the Momentum One-Day Cup trophy this season and the top-order batsman’s reward came last night as he picked up three major honours at the franchise’s annual awards dinner at SuperSport Park, celebrating his 30^th birthday in tremendous style.

Kuhn scored successive centuries in run-chases, preceded by an innings of 92 off 80 balls to keep the Titans alive in the competition, as he finished as the leading run-scorer in the One-Day Cup with 470 runs at an average of 47. Unsurprisingly, he was named as the Titans’ player of that tournament and must be the favourite to take the overall national honour too.

His decision to relinquish the wicketkeeper’s gloves in order to concentrate on his batting certainly paid off in the limited-overs formats and Kuhn also enjoyed an excellent RamSlam T20 Challenge run, averaging 36 at a strike-rate of 141.

A disappointing Sunfoil Series has seen Kuhn only average 25, but he has scored three half-centuries and is the Titans’ second-highest run-scorer. Overall, the man from Piet Retief who has played five T20 internationals for South Africa did enough to also take away the Players’ Player of the Year award as well as the overall Player of the Year honour.

The Sunfoil Series player of the tournament award was won by leg-spinner Shaun von Berg, who has been the leading wicket-taker with 28 at an average of 29, as well as making the only century by a Titans player in the competition this season – a blazing 105 off 73 balls against the Cobras in Benoni which broke Lance Klusener’s record for the fastest hundred by a franchise batsman.

The Titans were hugely boosted by the presence of Pakistani mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal in the T20 Challenge and he proved his worth by taking 15 wickets in six matches at an average of 9.26 and an economy rate of 6.13. Ajmal was a worthy winner of the Titans T20 Challenge Player of the Tournament.

Perhaps the biggest strides made this season were by 23-year-old rookie Graeme van Buuren, who made runs in all formats and chipped in valuably with his slow left-arm spin in the limited-overs formats.

Van Buuren’s progress was recognised by both the Newcomer and Most Improved Player of the Year awards.

The Unlimited Titans have made arguably the biggest strike in the domestic transfer market by securing the services of top-order batsman Dean Elgar for the next two seasons, chief executive Jacques Faul confirmed yesterday.

The Knights left-hander is on the verge of becoming a Test regular following the retirement of Graeme Smith and he has a first-class average of 43.69 and a List A average of 37.61, plus a strike-rate of 110.15 with a great average of 38.96 in T20 cricket.

“Dean is the kind of player we need at the Titans, he’s gutsy, well-respected in South African cricket and he gives it his all. He’s a helluva player in all three formats, but especially in four-day cricket. At the moment we’re playing guys who are averaging in the 20s, which is not what we want. Dean is a special player and he gives us lots of options,” Faul told The Pretoria News yesterday.

And it would appear to be a good bet that Elgar hits top form for the Titans because Smith’s absence has now given him the chance to cement a regular place for himself in the national team, as evidenced by Cricket South Africa’s decision to give him a contract once the Test skipper retired.

“If he performs at our level then he will become a permanent fixture in the national team. But he must do well for us first and I believe he’ll be fresh, hungry and wanting to prove himself. He’s wanted to come here for a long time and he’s one of the guys who has always been keen to play for his franchise,” Faul said.

While the 26-year-old Elgar is a high-quality signing that will make a real difference to the Titans team, the ambitious franchise did not stop there and also targeted fellow Proteas Ryan McLaren and Quinton de Kock.

McLaren – who Faul complimented on his “honest” negotiations – has been confirmed as a Dolphins player for next season, while De Kock is most likely to remain as a marquee player for the Titans’ Gauteng rivals, the Highveld Lions.

“Obviously we wanted to strengthen the squad but franchises do make counter-offers and sometimes guys are not as serious about moving as they say,” Faul said.

The Titans are also in negotiations with Jacques Rudolph,who wants to be considered as only a limited-overs player next season, and Faul was optimistic that there would be a good outcome, describing the left-handed top-order batsman as “another special player”.

Seamer CJ de Villiers has been sent on his way, while paceman Junior Dala, currently on loan from the Lions, will be joining the Titans full-time next season.

Other high-flying youngsters being rewarded with improved deals are batsman Graeme van Buuren (rookie contract) and Tukkies star Theunis de Bruyn (semi-pro).

Despite the hype around SA U19 captain Aiden Markram, the batsman will have to make do with a contract from the University of Pretoria for the time being.

“Aiden is a very talented young player, very level-headed and smart, and the sort of guy we want to hang on to. But we literally don’t have space because we’re only allowed to contract a certain number of players. We have other former SA U19 stars like Murray Coetzee and Theunis at Tukkies and my best advice to Aiden is to stay patient,” Faul said.

Other big-name moves in franchise cricket include Lions spinner Eddie Leie moving to the Knights, along with Cobras T20 star Richard Levi, and Dolphins left-arm seamer Mthokozisi Shezi possibly going to the Cobras.