'Give me a pair of boots and a cone': Kyle Abbott's old-school mastery

Kyle Abbott has a way with pithy statements. There's no waffle. Only clear, concise language. It was there again in an interview with Cricbuzz this week.

On whether he considers himself good enough to play for South Africa again: "… based on current form I'd back myself to make a squad, 100%."

On living in England: "… it will never be home."

On modern players spending almost as much time on data as training: "Give me a pair of boots and a cone and I'm going to bowl."

On keeping on at age 38: "… going into every year a bit of imposter syndrome creeps in."

Now in his ninth season with Hampshire, Abbott has finished among the top 10 wicket-takers in the first division seven times. This season he was second going into the match against Essex at Chelmsford.

Abbott has been among the 10 bowlers who have sent down the most overs in six seasons. Only four fast bowlers who made their first-class debuts in this century have taken more than 200 wickets after turning 35: Tim Murtagh, Michael Hogan, Andre Adams and Abbott.

"I guess I've found a method that's worked, but going into every year a bit of imposter syndrome creeps in," he said. "You think, 'Maybe this is the year that it doesn't go quite right.' Then you look back at the end of the year and you're still in the top three or four bowlers in the country."

On his training approach: "I'm still very old school. You have all these new science and medicine guys and all this data. And I'm like, 'Give me a pair of boots and a cone and I'm going to bowl.' Something I didn't realise was the distance we covered during a four-day game. Just last week against Somerset I did 43 kilometres in four days."

"Over the last couple years I've become a lot more fit for purpose. I've been running longer distances on the road over the winter. I do between 32 and 45 kilometres on the road during the week at a low heartrate; six-and-a-half minute kilometres."

On playing for Hampshire: "Listen, it [England] will never be home. South Africa will always be home. But it has put my career into two different distinct chapters. I've had so much responsibility and I've played so many games of cricket. Never did I think I'd be knocking on the door of 200 first-class games."

The Chelmsford match is Abbott's 187th at first-class level. He has played 175 non-Test first-class games in England, compared to Dale Steyn's 11 county matches.

"I feel that in the last three years I've been bowling the best I ever have. I've seen a drop off in pace, which happens as you age. I used to bowl at 135 or 136, and I might be bowling at 130 now. Which still has enough on it."

On South Africa selection: "Sometimes I look at South Africa's squads, and based on current form I'd back myself to make a squad, 100%."

On the 2015 World Cup semifinal axing: Abbott had the best economy and strike rates among all South Africa's bowlers at the tournament but was dropped due to transformation quotas imposed by CSA. "I knew full well at the time that Russell [Domingo]'s hands were tied. It was never his decision. If it was I'd have a very different answer, but I knew he wanted to play me."

On Domingo now coaching Hampshire: "People asked, 'What do you think Russell is like with a tough conversation?' I was like, 'Nothing here is a tough conversation to Russell. None of us have scratched the surface of what he's had to deal with.' We're incredibly lucky to have him."

Abbott has been accepted onto the ECB's level four coaching course.