Pretoria-born Black Caps fast bowler Neil Wagner has become a proud New Zealander.
Wagner attended Affies, toured Zimbabwe and Bangladesh with South African Academy sides and played first-class cricket for Northerns.
In 2008, he moved to New Zealand and made his Test debut for his adopted nation against the West Indies in 2012.
The 35-year-old has since earned 56 Test caps, including six against the Proteas, and taken 235 wickets at an average of 26.60.
There’s no doubting where Wagner’s allegiance lies now.
“If you want to give your all for your team, you have to sever all emotional ties with your old country,” he told New Frame. “You can’t have one foot in a different camp. You have to be fully immersed.
“A lot of people don’t ever have to face that fork in the road. When they go to work they don’t have a country’s flag on their chest. They don’t sing that country’s anthem before they start their day. We do.
“And I’ve learnt that if I wanted to realise my potential and play my part in helping New Zealand win cricket matches, I had to cut the cord connecting me to South Africa.”
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Wagner explained why he left his country of birth.
“I was never going to break into the Titans, let alone the Proteas,” he said. “They had Albie and Morne Morkel, Andre Nel and Dale Steyn. That’s a quality attack.
“When I looked at the other teams and the guys playing for South Africa, I now know that I wasn’t going to challenge them. I started to get disappointed when I was promised contracts but they weren’t delivered.
“Thinking emotionally about things, you don’t think smartly and you speak out of turn. The anger and emotion take over. I needed a change in my life.”
