Theunis de Bruyn has played nine cricket tests for the Proteas, got a century to his name and in October he will be facing off against some of the world’s best spin bowlers in India.

However, all this does not mean he forgot where it all started for him.

That’s why he joined a group of select guests last week at SuperSport Park to celebrate Assupol Tuks Cricket’s 100 years of cricketing excellence where the inimitable Anton Ferreira was the guest speaker.

“It was the coaches at Assupol Tuks Cricket – to be more specific Pierre de Bruyn – who taught me the discipline of what it takes to excel at the highest level,” Klaasen said at this glamorous event.

According to De Bruyn, as coach and mentor his namesake, the passionate Pierre de Bruyn, did not believe in half measures ever.

“That is why we never trained only to be the best at a club level. He wanted us to be the best university side in the world. Therefore, he made us train like true professionals, and we reaped the rewards. In the five years, I have played for Assupol Tuks we never lost to any local club team. I am not sure, but we might have won 100 games on the trot,” De Bruyn explained.

He said 2013 was a definite highlight, Tuks got to win the International Red Bull Varsity Tournament. But there is a story the media never got to report on.

“As part of our preparation for the tournament we got to play two matches against the South African A-side. We wiped the floor with them. And it was not as if it was a mediocre side. The likes of Kagiso Radaba, Marchant de Lange, Rory Kleinveldt, Riley Rossouw, Heino Kuhn and Simon Harmer played for them,” De Bruyn revealed.

Assupol Tuks also had a formidable team with Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram and Sean Dickson playing for them with De Bruyn.

“I think eight out of the 12 of us in that team went on to play franchise cricket,” said De Bruyn.

Assupol Tuks Cricket is certainly where talented young cricketer’s skills get honed to such extent that they get to play international cricket. In the current Protea test squad who will be playing against India in October, there are five former Tuks players.

Apart from De Bruyn, they are Faf du Plessis (captain), Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Lungi Ngidi.

De Bruyn, however, does not see his time at Assupol Tuks Cricket as where he got to learn the finer intricacies of the game.

“I got taught life skills that are going to stand me to good stead for the rest of my life,” the star batsman concluded.

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