Hylton Deon Ackerman, also known as HD Ackerman, (born 14 February 1973 in Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

) is a South African

South African cricket team

The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er.

Ackerman has four Test

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 appearances for South Africa all made in 1998. He made a gutsy 57 in his first Test innings but after that made little impact. It was thought that Ackerman had a weakness against top class spin as Mushtaq Ahmed

Mushtaq Ahmed

Mushtaq Ahmed is a retired Pakistani cricketer who specialised as a leg spin bowler. He was known for his hard-to-pick googly. He memorably trapped Graeme Hick in front with one during the 1992 World Cup final. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997...

 and Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan , often referred to as Murali, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2002...

 were particularly successful against him in successive series.

He joined Leicestershire

Leicestershire County Cricket Club

Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....

 in 2005 under the Kolpak ruling which allowed him to play for an English county without being registered as an overseas player. He was the captain of Leicestershire in 2005

2005 English cricket season

Before the beginning of the 2005 English cricket season began, a resurgent English cricket team had won four Test series in a row, going unbeaten through the 2004 calendar year. The start of the international season saw England defeat Bangladesh 2–0 in their two-match series, winning both Tests by...

, having some success in one-day cricket.

In the 2006 season

2006 English cricket season

The 2006 English cricket season includes home international series for England against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. England are coming off a winter with more Test losses than wins, for the first time since 2002-03, but still attained their best series result in India since 1985...

, Ackerman stepped down to concentrate on his batting. This move seems to have paid off as Ackerman scored 309 not out against Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens, the highest ever first-class score by a Leicestershire player.

Ackerman's father, Hylton Michael Ackerman

Hylton Ackerman (cricketer, born 1947)

Hylton Michael Ackerman was a South African first class cricketer who played for Western Province in the 1970s.He attended Dale College Boy's High School where he was headboy. His son, Hylton D...

, played first-class cricket for Border

Border cricket team

Border cricket team is the team representing the Border province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa. The team began playing in March 1898....

, Natal, Northern Transvaal and Western Province in South Africa, and for Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...

 in England. He was picked for the World XI that played Australia

Australian cricket team

The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 in 1971-72, but did not play Test cricket because of South Africa's exclusion from international cricket on account of apartheid.