Slow left-armer Paul Harris is the latest man to be tasked with curing South African cricket's chief ailment - their continued failure to develop match-winning spinners at international level. Tall and not unlike the former England star Phil Tufnell in appearance and style, Harris eventually made it into the South African squad for the Boxing Day Test against India in 2006.

The selectors had previously ignored his haul of 49 wickets in the 2005-06 SuperSport Series season, which no bowler bettered, and faced the prospect of him being lost to South African cricket when he played eight successful matches for Warwickshire as a Kolpak player in mid-2006. It was only after Nicky Boje stormed into retirement, finally disenchanted with his country's treatment of spinners, that the call went out for the 28-year-old.

Harris has made his name with the Titans under former Pakistan coach Richard Pybus and is a departure from the usual South African policy of choosing spinners who can also contribute with the bat and in the field. But he has been an integral part of his franchise's success at first-class level, combining accuracy, turn and bounce to claim higher honours.

Harris was born in Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, in November 1978 but grew up in Cape Town, where his progress as a spinner was blocked by the former internationals Paul Adams and Claude Henderson.

Having made his first-class debut for the Western Province B side in 1998-99, he played a single match for the A side in 2000-01 and 2001-02 before moving to Northerns. He only booked his place in the side when Pybus became coach in 2005-06 and calls for the national selectors to consider him soon grew in volume. Harris gave up his Kolpak status at Warwickshire (where before his Test debut he wasn't classified as an overseas player) to play for South Africa in the New Years' Test against India. He took four wickets in the first innings - including one Sachin Tendulkar - and will perhaps be remembered most for his nagging, over-the-wicket line that decidedly put the Indian batsmen in a shell, and helped South Africa wrestle back the initiative.

He showed great promise in 2007, picking up 12 wickets at 20.66 against Pakistan in October, including his first five-wicket haul in the first Test at Karachi. He was named as one of South Africa's Players of the Year for his efforts, but struggled to build on his potential in 2008, picking up 24 wickets in the calendar year at a bloated 45.04. Harris found some form in 2009, but a poor showing in the third Test against England in January 2010 - and the subsequent call-up, quickly rescinded, of the ineligible Pakistan-born legspinner, Imran Tahir - meant Harris's place in the team was no longer assured.
Ken Borland January 2010