Johan Botha, who featured in 78 One-Day Internationals for South Africa is an Australian citizen now, his Big Bash League (BBL) team Sydney Sixers have confirmed.
He became a citizen of the country yesterday, four years after moving from South Africa and will now be registered with the Sixers as a local player on their roster.
“It’s been a bit of a process but very happy to finally get it over the line," Botha was quoted by the Sydney Sixers website.
“I think when we came over four years ago this wasn’t our main intention or main plan, but as time has gone on everyone has just settled really well and I suppose this was just the next step for us as a family and for our future”
The former South Africa T20 skipper started off playing in Australia with the South Australian Redbacks in 2012 and he and his family are still based in the city of Adelaide. But now after penning a deal with the Sydney Sixers, Botha said he is looking forward to spending time in the new city.
“The six weeks in Sydney fits really well, it’s obviously the long school holidays so all four of us can come up to Sydney," Botha said.“It’s a great time of the year to be in Sydney and we really enjoyed it last year and all four of us are really looking forward to it again.”
While his family will be enjoying the city of Sydney, Botha is gearing up for the season ahead donning the magenta jersey.
“As a team, we’d definitely like to bounce back and show why the Sixers are one of the better teams in the competition," Botha said. “We have some work to do from last season, obviously we didn’t play at our best and we had some injuries, but that’s no excuse.”
The 34-year-old also said their success will depend on the form of captain Moises Henriques.
“Hopefully (Moises Henriques) can put a real good season together, he’s one of the better players in the whole competition," Botha said. "So we’re going to look to our captain to lead from the front and then everyone else to jump on board and make contributions along the way.”
Before the BBL begins Botha will feature in the first three games of the T20 Kingsgrove Cup for Mosman Cricket Club.The Sixers begin their BBL season 6 campaign on 20th December against the Sydney Thunder.
For South Africa, Botha featured in 5 Tests, 78 ODIs and 40 T20Is where he has scored 893 runs and picked up 126 wickets.
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