Botha will be released from his national contract with Cricket South Africa after the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September.
“Johan has been an excellent servant of South African cricket for a lengthy period of time and we will never forget the manner in which he captained the Proteas to success in the absence of Graeme Smith in the away ODI series in Australia in 2009,” said CSA’s acting chief executive, Jacques Faul, in a statement.
“He has fully committed himself to the Proteas for the next five months which includes the away series in Zimbabwe and England as well as the World Twenty20 and is, at the moment, our first choice spinner in the T20 format.
“However, he has had an offer to captain South Australia over the next two seasons and this will provide valuable opportunities in broadening his experience in a leadership role.
“I must stress that Johan remains fully committed to South African cricket in the long run and is by no means bringing down the curtain on his international career for the Proteas.”
In line with the above statement from Faul, Botha reiterated his desire to grow as a leader and have no regrets, and said it was a cricketing decision entirely.
This is just bad news for our cricket. Johan Botha is a current Protea player. It is not like he is out the team. How many more players are we going to lose?? This is very strange. There was talk of increasing the number of franchise teams but if top players are leaving who will play in them??
Johan Botha came through the ranks in SA cricket. He played in our development teams before making it into the national side. A lot of money has been invested in his cricket. Time will tell.
