'Run in, bowl quick, scare people'

"Do you have any idea when the new rankings are going to be released?" asks Jeanne Keitzmann, Dale Steyn's girlfriend. "I want to be the first one to know that. That's the first thing I see always, it's exciting," she says as my hour-long conversation with Steyn comes to a close. "Yes it would be nice to be on top," Steyn acknowledges, hiding his smiling face with both hands. Fittingly, a couple of days later he is No. 1 in the ICC's bowler rankings, having displaced the omnipresent Muttiah Muralitharan.

In the last year Steyn has achieved success in leaps and bounds. He beat Allan Donald's record to become the fastest South African to 100 Test wickets by two Tests, accomplishing the feat in 20. Five-fors have now become a matter of course for Steyn whose strike-rate is second on the all-time list.

"It's cool to have that kind of thing," Steyn says as he sits down after a quick shower following the second day's play in Ahmedabad. (South Africa won the Test inside three days and Steyn had a match haul of eight wickets.) Clothes, accessories, shoes, both his and his girlfriend's, lie scattered across and piled up in various corners of the room. Steyn apologises for the mess.

When he moved to Pretoria, Steyn became the first in his family to leave the small town of Phalaborwa, his birthplace. When he made his debut for South Africa in 2004-05 against England, he was raw and quick, only 21. It didn't matter to him that he was dropped three games after his debut and he had to wait another 15 months before he made it back.

Those who've watched him come along think he has the ingredients to become an all-time great. Peter Kirsten, the Titans coach between 1998 and 2000, where Steyn was at the academy squad, is impressed by his bowling intellect. Kirsten points out how Steyn's rapid rise actually hastened Shaun Pollock's retirement at a time when South Africa were looking for a strike bowler. Daryll Cullinan, who captained Steyn at Northerns, thinks he has at least 350 Test wickts in him if he continues to be fit. "At the same age he is far better than Allan Donald was. He has everything right for him. He is quite astute in what he can and can't be," Cullinan says.

Steyn himself wants only one thing: to keep his feet on the ground. He talked Cricinfo through his journey to the top.

You once said that you are amazed you play cricket for a living. Do you still pinch yourself?
Yes, I'm still surprised each time I enter the field that I'm taking the new ball for South Africa. After the first day at Motera, where I took five wickets, I was sitting in the dressing room and watching it on TV - I couldn't believe I actually did it. It's always a blur. Maybe it's because I always feel like I'm a different person when I'm on the field. But it's important to have such a feeling - especially with the selection system we have in South Africa. You've got to realise how important it is to play for the country.

I play cricket to have a good time, but I'm also trying to leave shoes for somebody else to think of filling in. When I was younger I always wanted to be like Allan Donald or Jonty Rhodes, and all of a sudden I was playing for the country. So I had the opportunity to actually become like them. Years down the line some kid might say, "I wish I could be like Dale Steyn."

How far have you come from small-town Phalaborwa?
Distance, a big distance. When I was there, nothing was happening. I went to school in Tzaneen, 100 kilometres outside of Phalaborwa but my first real jump was when I moved to Pretoria. My whole family had moved from Zimbabwe to Phalaborwa, a little mining town. Nobody ever left there. I told them I was packing my stuff and going to Pretoria because I wanted to play cricket. That was a big stepping stone for me. I started to make my own money.

Your graduation from first-class cricket to internationals was swift. Were you overwhelmed by the pace of it?
When I made the South African side I had never met Polly [Shaun Pollock] and Jacques Kallis. Then, all of a sudden, I was there, in the same team. That was a big thing. I had only played seven first-class games before I played my first Test. I didn't know how to go about things. My kit was out of place, I didn't have shoes, everything was chaos. Maybe the moment was too big for me then, but I wouldn't change it - it was the best way to arrive in international cricket.

You seem to have attained a certain maturity since then.
When I was out of the South African side I played for a lot of sides - like my provincial side, Essex, and Warwickshire. I just went and played a lot of cricket. I had to. I had to learn the ins and outs of what was going on. One thing I've learned and sorted out is that you've got to be comfortable off the field to be able to perform on the field. That's why I admire sportsmen like Polly or Tiger Woods or Roger Federer - for their professional way of doing things. They're prepared.

Polly was just amazing. He was my shoe sponsor for the last three years. I would get all his second-hand boots! I remember when I started out, I had maybe two pairs. I didn't have the money then. I now have a room full of shoes. Now I'm prepared. Everything is ready: shoes are in order, kit is order, life is in order.

When I got back to the team [against New Zealand in 2006] I thought, "This is it. Now I've got to get my foot down and I've got to stay here." So what was important to me was to play a lot of cricket, learn a lot about cricket on the field and also learn off it. That's maturity to me.

Me and my family are completely different. My girlfriend thinks I'm adopted because they are so different to me. I'm completely different. They think it's so weird that I haven't got married and had a kid already.

I did change when I got into the city. There's a saying, "Fit in or f*** off". When I lived in Pretoria, I tried to fit in. I started realising I was a professional and I had to act like one and live my life like one. That, I realised, was the recipe for success.

Your figures both home and away this season are remarkable. Has Dale Steyn arrived?
I would never say that I've arrived. I would never take my place for granted. I'm always hard on myself. Yes, it does feel good that people recognise you and make you feel important. It is always a good feeling, especially when your captain throws you the new ball and says, "I want you to bowl teams out". And when you deliver, he is the first guy to come and pat you on your shoulder and sit down next to you and say, "That's it, that's what we want of you." So for the first time I feel like this is my spot.

You spent 15 months out of the side. How did you cope?
It seems quite a long time ago. The important thing was, people told me, "You're gonna have more disappointment than celebrations. That's the best thing about cricket."

Neil McKenzie said the other day in Chennai about how someone said to him, "Before you even hit a ball, we'll give you 90 runs. Would you take that?" He replied, "Without a doubt." Then he goes out, makes 94 and comes back and regrets it, saying he should've wished for a 100 instead of 90. Cricket gives you wounds at times but you've got to go out and play and learn. When I was dropped I played for different teams, went to different places, went on different tours and sat back and waited and waited for my turn to come. It was a difficult team to get into with Polly, Makhaya [Ntini] and Andre Nel bowling well. And when it came, I grabbed it.

How valuable was the stint at Warwickshire last summer?
When I first played against England, in my debut series, Allan Donald suggested I should play for Warwickshire, and a guy from the county approached me. But it didn't go further and I ended up going to Essex. Then Paul Harris went to Warwickshire and played for the second XI first and then made the first team. He was only going to be available for the second half of the season and he mentioned my name. It was too good a deal to say no, especially because of all the South Africans who'd been there, like Polly, Donald, Makhaya and whole bunch of other South Africans.

They made me so happy off the field, like I was their golden boy. My contract was extended. By then Harrow had come over, but he was told to wait and I ended up playing a good two-and-a-half weeks. It helped me get back into the [South Africa] side.

I was the oldest bowler in the Warwickshire bowling line-up. Darren Maddy, the captain, asked me to stand at mid-off and guide the other bowlers. I enjoyed the responsibility. I had played a little international cricket and the youngsters had seen me bowl. It was an awesome feeling.

Who would you say has been the key architect of your success?
I feel, as a bowler, the best people to speak to are batsmen. Those are the guys you are getting out. Daryll Cullinan helped a lot in that regard. Then the technical things I picked up from Polly, Vinny Barnes ... and there's [Mark] Boucher, who has kept to various bowlers, knows when I'm bowling quick, what I'm doing in my action. No specific persons. Polly - you just watch him and you learn. He doesn't need to say anything. He's the perfect professional.

Polly would just say, "Don't ever stray off that area". That area is where the batsman doesn't know whether to play or leave the ball. So it's not just the speed, it's accuracy. For a bowler, sometimes it is difficult to find the proper length. So he would stand in the middle and tell me what the perfect length was.

Is it pressure being the strike bowler?
I'm through and through a strike bowler. I get a ball in my hand, you'll see something happen. It's either going to be 40 runs in four overs or there's going to be a couple of wickets.

Is speed still the most important weapon in your armoury?
I've realised that speed is not everything. You can't bowl at 150kph and bowl all over the place. It's important to mix genuine speed and bowl in the good areas. It's not going to matter for the batsman if it is 140kph or 145, if it is pitched in the right areas. If I need to slow down, then so be it.

Len Pascoe said a fast bowler needs to have a little bit of madness. Do you agree?
I do agree, there is a little bit of madness. I do get affected by white-line fever. When you play cricket, you are completely different. Shane Warne was putting on a show and did it brilliantly for so many years. People came to watch the entertainment: what is Warnie gonna say next, how's he gonna go about getting this guy out, what is he going to say to this guy. As a fast bowler you need to do the same. As a fast bowler you are supposed to bowl bouncers, hit guys, stare at guys, have the odd verbals. So I play my part. And once off the field, I go back to who I am and lead a chilled out life.

Your favourite dismissal so far?
The Michael Vaughan ball [at Port Elizabeth in 2004] will be remembered forever. That's the one everyone remembers. I was playing my first Test and bowling the England captain out with a shaping away delivery was memorable.

Your girlfriend says you're a completely different person off the field. Can you explain?
It could be true. That's what cricket has given me. It has made me way more mature. But the nicest thing, my friends have told me, is that I'm still the same person they knew me. I'm still humble and know where I come from. Stay humble, feet on the ground. That's what I try and do. I can't become bigger than the game just because I'm making more money.

Do you know that your strike-rate is the second-best of all-time?
Yes, Michael Owen Smith, our media manager, keeps reminding me. It's cool to have that kind of thing. It's a game of numbers and you get remembered at the end of your career by the numbers, whereas what you really want to be remembered is for the person that you were, backed up by good numbers. Like, Polly retired recently and I know he was a fantastic, fantastic guy, with the best stats. That's what I want to be like.

The number of five-fors you've taken suggests you are winning matches on your own. How true is it that fast bowlers hunt in pairs?
Fast bowlers do hunt in pairs. Things are going my way at the moment, but people forget who bowled at the other end. Makhaya has built pressure with a brilliant economy-rate, and that has helped me. It is important to understand that you hunt in packs and Makhaya is the leader of the pack, with Morne Morkel, myself, Harrow and Jacques Kallis as his support act.

What's the definition of fast bowling to you?
Run in, bowl quick, scare people, take wickets. It's been the same all the while.

The word "fast" is scary, and to that you add the arsenal of being able to swing the ball at high speed, bring it back in, or take it away, and the ability to hurt someone. That's what fast bowling is all about. Brett Lee personifies that - he is seriously quick and a true professional.

What are the challenges for you, here on?
To just keep sticking to the recipe and not fall off the road. Stick to what works, don't get caught in the hype, keep the feet on the ground, and remember that at the end of the day it's just a game between two teams, so just have fun. I never wanted to play cricket for the wrong reasons.

You can never be satisfied as a cricketer. In Motera, Jacques Kallis walked off the field and said, "I'm tired of getting out in the 130s". How can somebody say that, you might wonder. So you've just got to keep wanting more.