Exclusive: Jake Ball’s Advice and the Chance to Meet Ben Stokes Motivate Durham’s New Signing Codi Yusuf

Durham’s new overseas signing, South African fast bowler Codi Yusuf, is eager to gain as much First-Class experience as possible during his County stint. 

With only a seven-match First-Class season back home, Yusuf believes it is not enough to develop Test-ready cricketers. The 27-year-old also praised his bowling coach in South Africa, the legendary Allan Donald, for helping instil the mentality needed to succeed at the highest level.

The Durham deal

Yusuf had yet another impressive first-class season back home in South Africa, where he finished fifth on the top-wicket-takers list with a tally of 23 wickets in six matches and an average of 22.

His returns this past season have seen the right-arm quick being roped in by Durham. 

Yusuf told SportsBoom that he first heard from Proteas and Durham batter David Bedingham that the UK-based side were interested in having him on board this season.

"David Bedingham messaged me and told me that Durham was looking to sign me as their overseas pro and asked if I would be interested. I obviously told him 100%, I would definitely be interested," Yusuf told SportsBoom.com in an exclusive interview.

"And then maybe five, ten minutes later, I got a call from Marcus North, who is the director of Cricket here at Durham, and he just chatted to me about the plans that they might have for me while I am here and I was happy with the plans that they had for me. So yeah, I contacted my agent and we sorted it out."

"I was supposed to go on an Emerging tour to Bangladesh, and then I told them that there could be some possible County offers, so I might have to pull out of the Emerging tour. They were quite understanding about that."

"I met all of them the day after I arrived and got into a training session with them. The boys were lovely with me, fortunately enough, we managed to win my first game that I played for them and I put in a good performance (2/36 & 4/26)."

Playing alongside Ben Stokes

Among many other seasoned professionals at Durham, Yusuf will potentially share the dressing room with England Test captain Ben Stokes, his own role model.

The 27-year-old is excited to learn as much as possible from the likes of Stokes, Alex Lees and Jake Ball, who all have international experience.

"I don't want to sound cocky or anything but I've worked very hard to get myself into this position and I've definitely done things the way I know how. With that being said, I'm not close-minded. It helps having someone like Jake Ball playing here with us. He's played all three formats for England," he said.

"I've had a few chats with him and he's definitely got the wealth of knowledge. It also helps having guys who have experienced this level of cricket and higher levels of cricket for a little bit longer."

"Ben Stokes is in our squad, and after chatting to a few other guys, I think they don't know exactly where he's at in terms of when he's going to get on the field or if he's going to get on the field. I don't know if he's injured. I don't know if he's just taking a bit of a break or what have you."

"Definitely, I'm sure I'll see him when we go back home to Durham. I'm extremely excited to meet him. I've looked up to him for years, and I'd say he's my role model. It would be lovely to chat to him a little bit and get to experience how he is as a bloke."

First-Class cricket in SA

Yusuf only played six First-Class games in the recently concluded domestic season in South Africa and bowled a total of 172 overs, which is just not enough to help shape a young fast bowler into a Test match-ready fast bowler.

With him playing County cricket, he stands a chance to get more First-Class cricket experience under his belt and put himself in a better position to make the Proteas Test squad in the future.

"I personally don't think we've been playing enough first-class cricket back at home. We play seven and eight if you're lucky to be in the final. Whereas I think these (UK) guys are playing 14 first-class games a year," Yusuf told SportsBoom.com

"So, just in terms of your growth in the whole test match cricket environment and things like that, there's a lot of growth the more games you can play. I think especially if it's at a good competitive level. So, it definitely helps me grow a lot as a player, having to play my domestic season back home and then come and experience a County season as well."

"It helps me grow a lot quicker than maybe if I were only playing seven games a year. I mean, if you look at back home, if you play for 10 years, you're not really getting 100 games in 10 years."

"At the end of the day, I also want to give myself the best opportunity I can to obviously play Test match cricket. I feel like the longer I can show that I can consistently be good, the better my chances will be to play for the Proteas."

Allan Donald

Back home, Yusuf has a great coaching staff in his domestic team, the Lions. As fast bowlers, Yusuf and his teammates are being coached by the legendary Allan Donald.

Yusuf emphasised that Donald has helped him elevate his game.

"I've always grown up knowing Allan Donald as the 'White Lightning', you know what I mean? So, for him to be part of my team environment is quite special, and for me to have chats about my career with him is even more special. He's definitely helped me. I'll definitely put him out there and say that he's helped me get to the next level," said Yusuf. 

"He's not a guy that focuses massively on technical things. However, he does help your mentality a lot. At the end of the day, your skill can be just as good as mine, it's a lot about how we think about certain situations and how we're going about our business in certain situations."

"Allan is definitely giving me the upper hand in those situations because he helps me think of the more positive, attacking way rather than being defensive."