Michael Klinger is bringing Aussie flavour to the Mzansi Super League, as he looks to bring his championship-winning experience to the Paarl Rocks, writes KHALID MOHIDIN. 

The Australian batsman won five BBL championships. He led Victoria to the championship in 2006 and 2007 and the Redbacks to the 2011 BBL title. More recently, he won it with the Scorchers in 2015 and 2017.

The 38-year-old opening batsman now shifts his attention to the Mzansi Super League, where he has joined the Paarl Rocks in the place of Paul Stirling, who is no longer available.

With a T20 record of 5,428 runs at a strike rate of 124.66 in his 180 T20 games, he looks to bring all this to Faf du Plessis’ purple army.

‘I am very excited,’ Klinger told SACricketmag.com. ‘It’s going to be a great tournament, I think it’s great that a lot of [South African] international players are participating – once all of the players come back from Australia. I can’t wait.

‘My goal is to be part of a winning team and help out as much as possible. Personally, I go into every tournament to be the best player in every tournament and make the most runs, so that is certainly going to be my goal.

‘But that’s only going to be worthwhile if I’m helping the team win. As a team, we will be pushing for the final and to win it, otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.

‘As a tournament as a whole it’s going to be fantastic I think having the international guys involved for the majority of the tournament is great, where, in the Big Bash, for example, we don’t get that too often.

‘So that’s going to be a big bonus for the tournament and hopefully the crowds come out to support us.’

Photo: Will Russell/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images