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South African all-rounder Johan Botha has prompted a great deal of controversy during his time playing for South Australia.
Not just because he has been reported for chucking.
Not just because his recruitment saw favourite son Michael Klinger stripped of the Redbacks’ captaincy so Botha could take over.
As much as anything it is because he is not Australian.
Every winter, many developing and established Aussie players travel to England to hone their games playing county cricket.
For decades the English system has been used as a proving ground for prospective Australian players.
Yet many Aussie cricket followers loathe the idea of foreign players taking part in our domestic first-class competition.
Botha, for example, is not roundly lauded for the fact he has taken the perennially-poor Redbacks to the top of the Shield ladder at the midway point of the season.
Instead many fans claim he is holding back young leg spinner Adam Zampa, hindering the 21-year-old’s development.
Zampa is undoubtedly a promising player.
He has shown encouraging signs during his early forays into all three forms of the game.
Is his progress being stunted by the presence of Botha? Possibly.
Although no more than it was at New South Wales, where he was stuck behind the likes of Steve O’Keefe, a situation which likely motivated his move to South Australia.
Of course the difference in many people’s mind is that O’Keefe is Australian and Botha is not.
Zampa arguably would not have any better opportunities in the Shield were he to play for any other State.
If he was still with the Blues he would be the understudy to O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon.
Were he to go north to Queensland he’d have to try to leapfrog veteran off spinner Nathan Hauritz and fellow young leggie Cameron Boyce.
Down south in Victoria, spinners Fawad Ahmed and Jon Holland have both been on the radar of the national selectors, while highly-rated 20-year-old leggie James Muirhead is waiting in the wings.
There is a similar logjam further south in Tasmania, where Xavier Doherty is top dog but is kept honest by 24-year-old left arm spinner Clive Rose, who was recently mentioned by Australian chairman of selectors John Inverarity as a player to watch.
Over in the West, two left-arm tweakers with Test caps to their name – Ashton Agar and Michael Beer – are battling for one spot in the Shield side.
There are no easy games in the Shield for spinners at the moment.
This is a tremendous positive for Australian cricket.
Just a few years ago the spin bowling talent pool was bare.
Now every State has at least one spinner under the age of 25 who has the potential to push for national selection.
If Zampa is good enough he will prosper in one way or another.
Playing second fiddle to Botha may offer him a crucial insight into the inherent harshness of being a professional spin bowler.
Meanwhile, it is hard to deny that Botha has not improved the level of competition in the Shield – obviously only to the limited extent that any one individual can.
Botha is the equal leading wicket taker in the Shield this summer, alongside O’Keefe, with 24 wickets at 29.
When you combine that haul with his handy return of 253 runs at 28 it is fair to say he has been one of the elite players in the competition.
Botha’s action may be suspect, as are those of a number of the leading finger spinners in international cricket in recent years.
But he is a canny bowler and young Australian batsmen like his teammate Phil Hughes and Queensland’s Usman Khawaja have been exposed at Test level for their inability to counter wily tweakers.
Up and coming Shield batsmen should benefit from their exposure to his bowling.
Botha clearly has been a good addition to Australia’s first-class competition.
That raises the question of whether the Sheffield Shield would be better if there was a smattering of imports across the league.
If each State was allowed to field one import per Shield game, would that help or hinder the development of Australian cricket?
To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t know how any of us could be.
Whether other States follow the lead of South Australia and target foreign players for recruitment only time will tell.