Nicky Boje - South Africa - Batting Allrounder

Boje came from family where his mother, father and his siblings played one or the other sport at provincial or international level. During his school days, Boje was an opening bowler but due to his coach he turned into a spinner. The move paid off as he went on to take 100 wickets for South Africa in Tests. He was also a useful lower-order batsman, he has two ODI hundreds to his name.

Boje worked hard on his bowling to become the premier spinner in the Test side. After his ODI debut in 1995, he took almost 5 more years to make it to the Test team but the wait was worth it. As on the tour to India and Sri Lanka, Boje was able to establish himself as the No.1 spinner in the team. However, he lost his place to Claude Henderson and then to Robin Peterson, but Boje didn't give up and made it back to the side for the tour of New Zealand in 2003. During the final match, he picked up a 8-wicket haul and helped South Africa level the series.

He was also one of the players involved in the match-fixing scandal in 2000. Fearing arrest in India, Boje decided not to travel to India till 2006. He announced his retirement from international cricket in 2006 to concentrate on domestic cricket. Northamptonshire signed him up in 2008 and also made him the captain. Boje also played in the rebel Indian league, i.e. ICL for Hyderabad Heroes.


by Akshay Maanay
As of May 2014