Keshav Maharaj - a rebel with a cause

What you see is not what you get with Keshav Maharaj. You see a polite young man who seems incapable of treating anyone with disrespect, who talks in the received phrases of the modern professional cricketer, who looks like he might have disappeared into a beige corporate career were it not for the fact that he has turned himself into the best Test spinner South Africa have had since Hugh Tayfield.

What you get is a rebel. With a cause: to make slow bowling more than an afterthought in a cricket culture obsessed with speed. South Africa have come a long way since spinners would be tossed the ball only when an interval loomed, a pitch was breaking up, or the captain had run out of ideas. Even so, spinners remain a luxury not to be deployed with seriousness unless the quicks can't get the job done. In South Africa, spin is the plunger you reach for to try and unblock a drain when the plumber doesn't pick up the phone.

"It's hard being a spinner and luckily the mindset in the country towards spin bowling has changed," Maharaj told an online press conference on Monday. "If I can be catalyst in that I'm doing half the job, apart from putting in performances. It's important to set the example to the younger spinners out there, who will eventually play international cricket, that there is a future for spin bowling in our country."

Maharaj did his bit to make that happen in his first 35 Tests by showing grit with the bat, fielding tigerishly, and taking 122 wickets. You won't struggle to find South Africans who list his achievements in that order. His 36th Test should give them pause for thought.

Before the