Pierre de Bruyn

Pierre de Bruyn (born 31 March 1977) is a South African former cricketer. Having made his debut in first-class cricket in the 1995–96 South African cricket season, de Bruyn proceeded to play first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket for several teams as an all-rounder and occasional wicket-keeper until his retirement during the 2009–10 South African cricket season. Following his retirement, he moved into coaching. He was appointed the head coach of English county side Leicestershire in 2016, before resigning the following year. In December 2018, he was appointed as the head coach of the Namibia national cricket team.

Early life and cricket career de Bruyn was born at Pretoria, where he was educated at Zwartkop High School. He made his debut in first-class cricket for Northern Transvaal B against Transvaal B in the 1995–96 UCB Bowl at the Wanderers. He scored his maiden first-class century in 1997, batting alongside his twin-brother Ettiene de Bruyn for Northerns B. They shared a stand of 88 in Northerns first-innings, with de Bruyn making 103. He played solely first-class cricket up to 2000, He played cricket in England in 2003, appearing for Norfolk in a one-day match in the 1st round of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy against Lincolnshire. He later moved franchises to the Dolphins for the 2007–08 season having been released from his contract with the Titans, moving along with Alfonso Thomas. He played all three formats for the Dolphins until the 2009–10 season,

He played a total of 91 first-class matches, scoring 4,637 runs at an average of 37.09, while with his right-arm fast-medium bowling he took 108 wickets at 29.85 apiece. while with the ball he took 60 wickets at 38.11 apiece. With Leicestershire bottom of the County Championship in 2017 and with unresolvable dressing room tensions, de Bruyn quit as head coach with immediate effect in September 2017, with Graeme Welch and John Sadler replacing him in the interim.

In December 2018, he was appointed as head coach of the Namibia national cricket team, replacing Dee Thakur. He took up the post in January 2019. His first engagement was the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament in April 2019.

De Bruyn was head coach of Namibia when they won their first-ever match at an ICC World Cup when they beat The Netherlands by 6 wickets at the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi on 20 October 2021.