HOW many times have we seen excellent young cricketers in South Africa under-19 teams get all the hype as the country’s next big thing, all for them to not amount to the steep expectations that were set for them?
In Tony de Zorzi’s case, coming through the Northerns Cricket age group ranks to captaining the 2016 under-19 World Cup squad in Bangladesh, the same expectations were placed on his young shoulders.
Naturally, cracking into the Northern’s senior side - the Titans - was always going to be tough for any youngster, even one as stylish as the left-handed De Zorzi.
After a couple of seasons in and out of the Titans side, De Zorzi received a call from Ashwell Prince who was coaching Western province Cricket at the time.
It was this call that seemed to reignite the flame of De Zorzi’s career.
A few seasons into his career down in Cape Town, De Zorzi racked up the runs even smashing one of the country’s highest First-Class individual scores - 304.
When coach Shukri Conrad took over the Proteas Test side, he made it a point to give De Zorzi his first international call-up and the youngster debuted during the inbound tour of the West Indies last year.
Now a confident 26-year-old, all those years toiling in domestic cricket have been of self-discovery and certainly, a period in his career that taught him to savour every moment in what is a very short career being a professional sportsperson.
“Every time you get here you don’t take for granted that you’re in a Proteas set-up,” said de Zorzi post-Day two of the warm-up match in the Caribbean.
“With regards to intensity and stuff like that, I can say I’ve tried my best to acclimatise and I think I’ve done alright.
“As you get older, you dive in a little bit more into yourself and get comfortable with the things that you’re good at and not so good at as well and just being brutally honest about it. I think that allows you to grow as a cricketer and a person.
“Just trying to be a little bit more consistent as a person on and off the field but then also allowing myself to be who I am off the field. Being comfortable in who I am and then allowing my cricket to do the talking as well.”
The ongoing tour to the West Indies is De Zorzi’s first international tour. However, he faced the Windies bowling attack here in South Africa in March 2023 and even faced the likes of Shamar Joseph during last summer’s ‘A’ series up in the highveld.
The conditions in the Caribbean will be different to what De Zorzi grew up on but Conrad selecting the dry coastal wickets in Durban as the place for the pre-tour camp certainly helped De Zorzi and the side prepare well for the conditions they will face in the two-match Test series.
After all, Kingsmead stadium does resemble the dry spinner-friendly wickets of the Caribbean.
“Having played against them before, I have a feeling what the guys will try to do to try to get me out. So, I’m just practising the kind of ways I would try to counter that,” said De Zorzi.
“I think the conditions, we kind of prepared for them in Durban and knew what we are getting into. I think we are all pretty much prepared.”
Pressure will be on De Zorzi during this tour as he replaces the recently retired Dean Elgar as the Test team’s new opening batter alongside the tried and tested Aiden Markram.
However, despite recognising the steep challenge of filing Elgar’s shoes, De Zorzi remains excited for the opportunity to bat at his preferred batting position.
“It’s really exciting. Big shoes to fill because the guy before me was unbelievable,” he said.
“It’s really exciting batting with Aiden. I've done it before when I was at the Titans and it’s cool that it’s a familiar face. It’s been an exciting opportunity for me and I’m hoping I can do well.”
The final day of the Four-Day warm-up match against the West Indies Championship XI will get underway today at 4 pm SAST.