Johan Botha      

Johan Botha's is an interesting case. He began his career as an ordinary medium pacer for the Eastern Cape Warriors - by his own admission he was quicker than 125 kmph - but it was after Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, had a look at him in the nets and saw something else that Botha dropped his ambitions for speed. Spurred by Arthur's comments that he would do well to turn to spin, Botha remodeled his action and began studying the art of the doosra - the ball that turns away from the right-handed batsman - in hopes of emulating the wiles of Harbhajan Singh. A successful tour of Sri Lanka with the South Africa A side - in which he took key wickets as well as scoring runs - saw Botha's name penciled in as a potential spinning allrounder.

A determined, fiercely competitive individual, Botha found a place in the squad to tour India for a five-match one-day series after Nicky Boje pulled out over security concerns in regard to charges of matchfixing. His debut - in the first match at Hyderabad - resulted in 31 runs from six overs with the wicket of Irfan Pathan, bowled through the gate. Both Arthur and Graeme Smith rated him highly and saw him as vital to South Africa's progress towards the World Cup. But his career came to a grinding halt when his action was cited on his Test debut in January 2006, and following testing at the University of Western Australia, he was banned by the ICC. Botha reworked his action but it was confirmed once again in September that he bent his arm more than 15 degrees. However, after another review in November, Botha's action was cleared by the ICC. He made his comeback during the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup and returned to the South African one-day team during the tour of Pakistan in 2007-08.

His stock as a resourceful and intelligent one-day cricketer continued to rise, and Botha captained the limited-overs leg of South Africa's trip to Australia in Graeme Smith's absence, leading the team to a series win. Though he has faced competition for his place as a spinning allrounder from Roelof van der Merwe, Botha remains a fixture in South Africa's one-day set-up.
Jamie Alter June 2010