In an exclusive interview with Headstrong: An Innings With, former South Africa quick Morne Morkel talks about his rise into professional cricket.

Morkel took 309 Test wickets for the Proteas in 86 matches and began his first-class cricket with Easterns, where his older brother Albie Morkel also played.

The 36-year-old recalled how he got his breakthrough with Easterns, for whom he would make his first-class debut against the touring West Indies side in January 2004.

“I finished school, I was about to start uni,” said Morkel. “I was lined up to play a bit of league cricket in the UK. West Indies were touring South Africa and they were playing a warm-up game against Easterns. My brother said, ‘It’s two days out from the game, they’re looking for net bowlers, come and bowl’. I went that afternoon, bowled to the Eastern boys in the nets and the coach was: ‘What are you doing with your life?’ I said, ‘I’m not sure’. And he walked me that afternoon to his office, he gave me a rookie junior contract and then I was contracted with a first-class team.”

Not long after, Morkel received the opportunity to go and bowl at the South African side, and went on to make a notable first impression on talismanic all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

“A year down the line, the same coach, Ray Jennings, coached South Africa. England toured South Africa and they had [Andrew] Flintoff and Steve Harmison. He phoned me and said, ‘Listen, we need some tall guys to bowl and prep Kallis and those guys for the upcoming Test series.’

“I went and had a fun afternoon bowling to Kallis and Kallis walked out and he, ‘Who’s this guy bowling?’ And Ray Jennings said, ‘It’s Albie’s brother’. Kallis was like, ‘Can we play him in a Test match tomorrow?’ And from there word of mouth went about me bowling – I was a tall guy, I got a bit of bounce but I was still lanky, I was all over the shop.”

A Test debut was to follow in December 2006, with Morkel taking three wickets in a win over India at Durban to kickstart an illustrious international career.

You can listen to the full interview with Morkel on the Headstrong podcast, available to listen to on all the usual podcast hosting platforms. Headstrong: An Innings With supports the Ruth Strauss Foundation and is exclusively previewed by Wisden.com.