Botha feels pressure every time he bowls

South Australia captain Johan Botha feels his cricket career is at stake every time he bowls.

South African Botha again had his controversial bowling technique reported during last month’s one-day competition in Sydney, and was sent for testing at the Australian Institute of Sport before being allowed to bowl again.

His action was cleared in the testing and he returned to lead the Redbacks to open the Sheffield Shield season, taking figures of 4-47 on Thursday at the WACA Ground against Western Australia to keep the Redbacks in the contest.

“It is nice to just play cricket and try not to worry about it,” Botha said.

“But it is a different kind of pressure when you are not bowling against batters, you are bowling for your career.

“It’s good to get that out of the way again and I’ve really enjoyed the last two weeks. It’s gone pretty well for me.”

The 31-year-old has become accustomed to people questioning his bowling action given it has happened throughout a career spanning 77 first-class games, five Tests, 78 one-day internationals and 40 Twenty20 internationals, but he would like some changes.

Presently, if a bowler is found guilty of exceeding the 15-degree arm bend to have an illegal action, they have three months to go away and work on their bowling action before being tested again.

However, if cleared then they can be re-tested straight away if reported again. Botha would like to see the same policy in place no matter whether you are found guilty or not guilty.

“Guys jump on it and sometimes it’s probably a little bit unfair, but I just feel that there has to be a bit of leeway the other way. If you get found guilty, you have 90 days of no testing and I think it has to be the same the other way as well,” Botha said.

“If you are cleared, it should be for 90 days that you are given a break so you can’t have back and forth tests every few weeks.”

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