An alumnus of the renowned Grey High School, famous for producing sportsmen of all codes for South Africa, batting all-rounder Colin Ackermann excelled even his peers as a schoolboy, and was marked for higher honours when he topped the run aggregates in the South African under-19s red ball competition in 2009. A call up for South Africa under 19s followed, but a senior debut never came and like many of his generation Ackermann would eventually find his way into County cricket. As a dual Dutch-South African national however, he would first take a detour to the Netherlands where he helped Dosti Amsterdam to the Topklasse title in 2015 before being snapped up by Leicestershire ahead of the 2017 season. Staying with the county for the next six years Ackermann proved a reliable performed for the side, averaging over 40 in first class cricket including a top score of 277* against Sussex in 2022, while his unassuming offspin memorably netted him a world record return of 7-18 against the Birmingham Bears in the 2019 T20 Blast. Ackermann took on the Leicestershire captaincy from 2020 until his departure for Durham after the 2022 season, where he will join former Netherlands coach Ryan Campbell and Dutch team-mates Base de Leede and Brandon Glover.
