I was bowling a bit of spin in the nets as a youngster at Natal when Graham Ford mentioned I should think about doing it full-time.
I was only 19 and an opening batsman and a seam bowler, but when Graham made the suggestion to switch to spin I listened.
I was already on Natal’s books but this was a chance to get into the one-day side and then it turned out I was in the four-day team and played half of that season as well.
It’s an interesting one because I had no grounding as a spinner, I was constantly learning on the job and it was only at the end of the career that I felt like I actually knew what I was doing. But for better or for worse, that was the choice I made.
From the age of around 15 or 16 I knew I was in with a chance of making a career out of cricket. I was playing for Natal Schools, then South Africa Schools and then South Africa Under-19s.
I had a great time at Natal who gave me my first contract at 18, it was like my home. I knew all the guys, we came from similar schools and were blessed with some great players, guys like Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock and with Pat Symcox in the South Africa set-up I got chances as a spinner.
I had four really good years there. We won the double in my first season and the four-day title again two seasons after that but with the introduction of quotas I was persuaded to move to Easterns.
We were a new team in Transvaal and it was a tough decision to move but I look back on that time with great fondness. We were tenth in our first season in the league and then three years later we were champions. Beating a Western Province side that had Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, world class players. In the end it was just a crazy stroke of luck that ended up with me moving to England to play county cricket.
We were at a family barbecue and my auntie let slip that my birth father was English and that meant I could get a passport. While that was a shock it opened things up for me to play in county cricket.
I had already been over to England to play some club stuff, I had played with a young Jimmy Anderson at Burnley and at Clifton in the Derbyshire league.
It was Derbyshire who offered me the county contract, a two-year deal, and, although I had international hopes, in the end it was the decision I made and I had to stand by it.
At Derbyshire I never quite fitted into the team as a player. I had some great personal moments, including a 158 not out against Yorkshire that really got my name out there, but as a team there were not many highlights to choose from.
And when I made the move to Warwickshire in 2007 I enjoyed some great success.
Promotion back to Division One in that first season was fantastic but the stand-out highlight for me has to be winning the one-day final at Lord’s in 2010 against Somerset.
Eventually injuries caught up with me and I retired in 2011 but after two and a half years in Australia coaching I came back to England with Graeme Welch to coach at Derbyshire.
Graeme and I have a great friendship that began back at Warwickshire and this for me is not just a job, this is a real project to turn this county around and this is where I have made my home.
Who knows what is down the line in the long-term but I am excited about the cricketers we have here and what we can achieve with a management structure that I think is ahead of the curve for cricket.
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