Hendricks' mentoring of Mulder helped elevate his game

WHEN Wiaan Mulder's professional career started, he was still a high school student at St Stithians. His skill was good enough to start his professional career with the Lions.

- ONGAMA GCWABE

However, at 18 years old at the time, Mulder had a long way to go and entering the Lions dressing room would have been intimidating for any youngster.

Mulder needed a mentor, an experienced Lions player that would take him under his wing and show him the ropes as a professional cricketer.

Lions captain, Dominic Hendricks, became that mentor for Mulder.

In an exclusive interview with Independent Media, Hendricks highlighted how Mulder's preparation was undercooked when he burst onto the professional setup and how their chat helped him (Mulder) raise his training standards to meet what is required to succeed at the highest level.

"I think the biggest thing was someone needed to mentor him and at the time, walking into the dressing room basically as a high school kid, you don't really know where to look. We found a lot of commonality in a lot of areas, and I think that's where the friendship started," Hendricks told.