Like many other South African cricketers who belonged to the apartheid area, Corrie Van Zyl’s career too, had a delayed start. A right-arm fast bowler, he debuted in first-class cricket for Orange Free State in 1981-82.

van Zyl’s ODI debut came much later in 1992 against the West Indies, at the age of 30.

van Zyl played just two ODIs in his entire career. He then turned to coaching as a profession and had a short stint with the Free State Cricket Union as its cricket manager, before being named as the assistant coach of the South African national team in 1998 for a period of five years. He was also the head coach of the Eagles, during which the team won six domestic titles.

In April 2009, van Zyl was selected as the coach of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre and in January 2010, he was appointed as the interim coach of the national team, following Mickey Arthur’s resignation.