Heinrich has left the building

Klaasen has closed this chapter

"Elvis has left the building" is a phrase often used by public address announcers after Elvis Presley concerts to disperse audiences who lingered in hopes of an encore. There won’t be an encore; Heinrich has left the building.

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A few years ago, I came across an interesting stat: Kobe Bryant missed the most career field goals in NBA history. He missed 14,481 times. He was a serial shooter. If he felt that there was a chance of nailing a basket, he took the shot. His proclivity to going for a basket is the reason why he is fourth on the list of NBA players with the most points in their career.

By always taking the shot, Bryant embraced failure and success in equal measure. As Kareem-Abdul Jaber wrote, “To miss so much and yet feel confident enough to shoot again and again embodies the best qualities of human beings: to imagine something beyond what is, beyond what you’ve ever been able to do, and to strive to make that a reality, no matter how many times you fail.”

Here is another fun stat: Heinrich Klaasen ended his ODI career with the second-most maximums by a South African batter from February 2018 to June 2025. In that period, Klaasen struck 72 sixes in 56 innings. He was behind David Miller, who chalked up 73 sixes in 64 outings with the bat.

You don’t hit that many sixes unless you actively seek them out. So, like Kobe Bryant, Klaasen always took the shot if he felt there was the slightest chance he could clear the ropes. That’s how he ended up with the highest strike rate by a South African batter from February 2018 to June 2025.

Much more impressively, Klaasen is joint-third on the all-time list of highest strike rates in ODIs. He is behind Andre Russell (130) and Glenn Maxwell (127). He is tied with Lionel Cann and Shahid Afridi on 117.

However, in cricket, as in basketball, the more shots you take, the higher the risk that you will miss. Klaasen was not immune to the laws of life; he didn’t succeed all the time, and that affected his international career.

South African selectors wanted the Heinrich Klaasen who could redline his way to an unbeaten 27-ball 43 in his second ODI outing or an outstanding 30-ball 69 in his second T20I, because he could win them matches. However, they didn’t want the version that was caught at the boundary for a low total.

They were happy that he could turn the game on its head in three hits, but considered it irresponsible if he smashed a six and was caught while going for another one off the next delivery.

“The difference between playing for South Africa and playing in the IPL is that in the IPL, teams bank on a batter playing a match-winning knock once in three or four games. The Proteas want a consistent player,” Klaasen told me in 2020.

What they didn’t understand was that they couldn’t have one without the other; they couldn’t have their cake and eat it too. It was impossible to have the match-winner without having the guy who would fall while trying to clear the ropes. The result was that Klaasen was in and out of the white-ball squad, with several spells of being relegated to the bottom of the pile.

“All the coaches want to play aggressive cricket, so I did in two games, it didn’t come off, and I was dropped and went back to seventh in the queue. It was tough for me to come back and play that positive brand of cricket,” Klaasen shared in 2023 after a valiant 80 from 62 balls against England.

Unfortunately for the Proteas, Klaasen’s tally wasn’t enough to see South Africa home. However, it was a turning point in his career.

I read somewhere that Jos Buttler had written ‘f**k it’ on the top of one of his bat handles. According to Neil Manthorp, it was a reminder that cricket was only a game, and he could take risks if he felt they could help the team. Klaasen adopted the same mindset when he walked out to face England’s bowling attack.

“So I basically gave up and said, ‘If this is my last game of cricket for the Proteas, then I will go out the way I want to go out’. Since then, I have been playing good cricket, so I treat every game and series as though it is my last. That seems to be freeing me to play the way I like to play,” Klaasen said.

Since then, Klaasen averaged 53.7 at a strike rate of 136.9 in 50-over cricket. He scored three of his four centuries and seven of his 11 50s in that period. He became the player South Africa needed by staying true to himself. Had South Africa trusted him to be himself earlier, they could have had the best of Klaasen for more than the two years they enjoyed it.

Instead, they spent five years telling him not to take the shot.