Paul Harris - South Africa - Bowler

Paul Harris is a tall off spinner, who arrived at a time when South Africa was on the lookout for quality spinners. He stepped into the void left by Nicky Boje and managed to hold South Africa's spinning torch high for a brief period of time.

Born on November 2nd 1978 in Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - he moved to Cape Town and made his debut for the Nashua Titans in 1998/99. He holds the domestic record for picking up 49 wickets in one season. Following consistent performances at the first class level, he was signed up by Warwickshire as a Kolpak player during 2006.

However, it was Boje's retirement which prompted the selectors to call back Paul Harris and he made his debut against India in the Cape Town test of 2007. He immediately made his impact against the Indians by operating on an around the leg line. This frustrated the Indians and they self destructed, handing the test match to South Africa. His bowling prompted Ravi Shastri to memorably comment, \"The Indians made him look like Lord Harris out there\".

His stock continued to rise and he was one of the star performers during the tour to Pakistan in 2007. In two tests, he picked up 12 wickets at an average of 20, and Harris soon became a regular feature in the Test team. He also performed steadily against the Australians and picked up wickets at regular intervals, even winning a man of the match award in the 3rd test at Cape Town in 2009, where South Africa won by an innings and twenty runs. It was a bittersweet series for Harris, for he was blasted for 26 runs in one over by Mitchell Johnson during the first test at the Wanderers.

However, he encountered a dip in form during the home series against England in 2009-10. He was comfortably negotiated by the English batsman, and thus he was dropped for the fourth and final test.. After being selected for the tour of India in February 2010, Harris was in the squad for one more year. He had average series against West Indies, Pakistan and India. In Dec 2010, he played his last Test before being dropped in favour of Imran Tahir.

He kept on playing for the Titans but didn't have any significant performance for him to comeback into the South African squad. Subsequently, he retired from all forms of cricket in January 2013. He finished his career with 103 wickets in 37 tests. He is now trying his hand in the media field.

by Siddharth Vishwanathan and Akshay Maanay