Wisden overview
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. He opened 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 matchwinning 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 during the first part of the tour to Australia in 2001-02. The batting ability remains untarnished, as a pair of one-day hundreds and a Test-match 85 testify. One of the bright, inquisitive breed of internationals who prefers a cameraman's long lens to a boring dressing-room and a craft market or temple to a hotel room. Neil Manthorp

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd