Nicky Boje

Such is the sporting gene-pool in the Boje family that mother, father and all three children have played at least one sport at provincial or international level. Nicky Boje captained South Africa Schools and was selected for three successive years as a middle-order batsman. From an early he showed his all-round skills, opening the bowling for his own school, and then switched to left-arm spin on the coach's command - because nobody else could turn the ball. He was equally pivotal on the rugby field and tennis court. Boje spent four long years after his initial squad selection quietly desperate to be regarded by the national selectors as a middle-order batsman who bowled usefully, but a spinner he remained. He worked furiously on his bowling as a result, and match-winning analyses in both India and Sri Lanka finally established him as the Test No. 1 in 2000-01, a position he briefly surrendered to Claude Henderson in Australia in 2001-02, and then to Robin Peterson and Paul Adams in 2003. However, he had a big role to play in the final Test of the New Zealand tour of 2003-04, when his eight-wicket haul helped South Africa to a series-levelling win. But after being implicated in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000, Boje refused to tour India in subsequent years. After fighting his way back into the squad to face India in 2006, he surprisingly announced his retirement from international cricket to concentrate on his domestic career with the Eagles. He went on to play in the "rebel" ICL and in 2008 was appointed captain of Northamptonshire, handing over the reins to Andrew Hall after a stuttering start to the 2010 season. He was one of the bright, inquisitive breed of internationals who preferred a cameraman's long lens to a boring dressing-room and a craft market or temple to a hotel room.
Cricinfo staff August 2010