Sunday, January 11, 2009

More Shockers on Botha

A couple of days back I mentioned my surprise at Johan Botha being the stand-in South Africa captain.

I wasn't the only one who was surprised. I'm pretty sure that majority of the visitors to Jrod's blog would not have recognised that picture.

So a South African captain and 2 shocked bloggers.

Just when I thought that there couldn't have been anything else more shocking about Botha's elevation, Biplob Kishore from Sports37 left a comment on my post stating that Botha was South Africa's "Player of the Year" for 2008.

WHY!?

For his 2 wickets and 25 runs in the only test he played last year?

Or the 19 wickets he picked up in ODIs?

Alright so the 19 wickets at 20 something is pretty decent but what about Dale Steyn? AB De Villiers? Graeme Smith? Even Amla or Prince?

Why was Botha cricketer of the year.

I considered the option of Biplob being mistaken but Botha's Cricinfo profile states the same!

Now there couldn't be anything more shocking than this could there.

Thats what I thought, but I was wrong again.

This is not the first time that Botha is going to captain South Africa!

While reading this today, I found out that Botha had led South Africa in a T20I and 3 ODIs against Kenya and Bangladesh last year.

Now how did I miss that.

Sure it was an unimportant series maybe but an international cricket captain is an international cricket captain.

Johan Botha, 2 tests, 36 ODIs, 5 T20Is, bowling average in the 40s, batting average in the teens, banned for chucking, back with remodeled action, South Africa player of the year 2008, South Africa captain.

This means that he's the vice captain when Smith is fit?

Make your pitch on this post...



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4 Pitched:

  1. Anonymous said...
     

    u miss me dude, i m shocked on botha too..Botha, the poor african cousin of Murali :(

    Right here : http://armball.blogspot.com/2009/01/botha-who-world-goes-round.html

  2. Q said...
     

    Am sure there are many more Sam. Sorry abt the miss...

    Kahan se aya yeh Botha!?

  3. Anonymous said...
     

    I was also surprised to know that Botha was South Africa player of the year 2008 because his performance with South Africa was not anything significant.

    But then, I came to know that there were in fact five player who were named as South Africa player of the year 2008 and they are: Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Botha, Dillon du Preez and Monde Zondeki.

    I have nothing to say about Morkel brothers. But, Dillon du Preez has not played any international match yet and his domestic performance was not eye-catching. Zondeki is promising, but his recent performance does not deserve him this award.

    Here is the list of South Africa player of the year award winners:
    http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/Overall/South_African_Cricket_Annual_Cricketers_of_the_Year.html

  4. Q said...
     

    Thanks for the info Biplob.

    Must say, South Africa's cricket board functions in strange ways..

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