“I think he just said to me when I was talking to him (Khawaja) during and after the PSL, he was so amazed at how different I am as a coach to a player.” Botha said. “I think he got a little taste of me. I hope he spreads the word to the group that the guy you’re dealing with is a little different. I think that’s a good thing.”
Botha, who moved to Adelaide in 2012 to play full-time for South Australia and is an Australian citizen, began his international career with South Africa after playing five Tests, 78 ODIs and 40 T20Is, including captaining his country in 21 white-ball appearances. virtually finished. matches.
He captained South Australia in the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup for two years before resigning midway through the 2014–15 season, allowing Travis Head to take over. Botha also has extensive playing experience in the BBL, having played 71 games with the Adelaide Strikers, Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes. He retired abruptly in 2019 to pursue coaching opportunities in the PSL, but retired as a fill-in during the coronavirus-ravaged 2020-21 season.
He was the head coach of Sharjah Warriors in ILT20 last season. Although he is completing his final season, he was an assistant coach for the Seattle Orcas at MLC when they finished runners-up last year. He was also the assistant coach of Strikers in the BBL as recently as 2022-23.
Botha counted Australian greats Dean Jones and Tom Moody as key coaching mentors during his early forays into coaching.
“I think Deano’s greatest strength is that he was so far ahead of his generation,” he said. “He understood T20 cricket – he’d never played it but he just understood it – and he was just great at relating to the players.
“He almost did a Phil Jackson-Dennis Rodman scenario once. He had Alex Hales go back to Dubai for five days, and I said, ‘What is Deano doing? He’s never coming back.’ But He said, ‘Trust me, he’s going to come back and he’s going to play to some extent.’ And so that was a good example of trusting your players and I was able to do that at that point. “I’m not sure, but I trusted him. He came back and played for us a few times.”
The coaching recruitment process was led by Queensland’s head of elite cricket, Joe Dawes, CEO Terry Svenson and Queensland board member and former Test wicketkeeper Ian Healy. Dawes and the Queensland Cricket Board were reportedly looking for a coach with a stronger edge and believe they have found that person in Botha.
“Johan is a driven and determined person and he has demonstrated these characteristics consistently throughout his playing and coaching career,” Dawes said. “He is at the cutting edge of the game internationally and will bring a fresh and dynamic outlook to our team.” Most notably, he assembled the Bulls and championship Brisbane Heat squads.”
Botha admitted that coaching a Shield side will be his biggest challenge as all his coaching experience has been in the T20 space. “I’ve played a lot of four-day cricket and one-day cricket, but I’ve never coached,” he said. “So I think it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge to get started.”
