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?