The left-handed Kirsten, who played 101 Tests and 185 One-Day Internationals with distinction, was a kingpin in the strong South African side of the 1990s led and coached by the late Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer respectively.
He was a big innings player and bowlers, speedsters and spinners alike, found it very hard to dismiss him if they did not get rid of him pretty early in his innings.
Being hugely talented in his own right, it did not take him long to emerge from the enormous shadow cast by his half-brother Peter Kirsten, one of the most formidable players in the South African team when the Proteas were readmitted to the international fold after the abolition of the apartheid.
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