Early Career
Botha began his career as an ordinary medium pacer for the Eastern Cape Warriors - by his own admission quicker than 125 km/h. It was only after Mickey Arthur, the former coach of the national team, had a look at him in the nets and saw potential as a spinner that Botha dropped his ambitions for speed. Spurred on by Arthur's comments that he would do well to turn to spin, Botha remodeled his action and began studying the art of the off spinner and doosra in hopes of emulating the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan and 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 all-rounder.
Read more about this topic: Johan Botha (cricketer)
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