Former South African spinner Johan Botha has decided to move out of retirement to ply his trade in the upcoming season of Big Bash League. He would be up for the Hobart Hurricanes, who have considered him as a replacement for Sandeep Lamichhane. Lamichhane tested COVID-19 positive a week back and will not be able to play immediately. Botha isn’t a new name for BBL as he has already donned jerseys of Adelaide Strikers and Sydney Sixers in past.

He was with Strikers from 2012-2014 and remained in action with Sixers from 2015-18. The 38-year-old got his Australian citizenship four years back and is the current coach of Tasmania. He said that he had to make a choice between his coaching career and coming into action as a player itself. In the present time, he is busy coaching Karachi Kings in the capacity of assistant coach in the Pakistan Super League tournament.

I feel I can still make a contribution to the team: Johan Botha

“It was a choice between ‘Do I further my coaching career, or do I miss the first couple of games of the Pakistan Super League?’ I figured I’m as fit as I’ve ever been, and I feel I can still make a contribution to the team,” he continued. “I’ve missed playing, but I didn’t really want to put it out there and say ‘can you pick me’ in case it didn’t work out, so we kept it quiet from when we first chatted about it at the Shield hub in Adelaide, and it slowly built up from there,” said Botha as quoted by News18.

While being with the Proteas team, Johan Botha has donned the South African Jersey in 78 ODIs and 40 T20Is and scalped 72 and 37 wickets respectively. He has also been part of 5 Test matches with the same team and has 17 dismissals on his name. The Hobart Hurricanes will kick off their BBL 10 journey while locking horns with defending champions Sydney Sixers. The match is set to take place at Blundstone Arena on Thursday.