Wesley Botton

I'm a 25-year-old South African sports writer currently specialising in cricket.

My career started five years ago when I was hired as the sports reporter for two community newspapers on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

The community group I worked for is widely recognised as a training ground for some of the country's best journalists.

As a reporter, I was solely responsible for the writing, photography and layout of my two newspapers, the Benoni City Times and the Brakpan Herald.

I covered every sport played in South Africa, from lawn bowls to motor racing.

After a couple of years I was promoted to senior sports reporter, overseeing the sports pages in the Boksburg Advertiser and the Germiston City News.

While at the Caxton East Rand group, I was nominated as a finalist for Caxton's Sports Writer of the Year in 2005 and highly commended in the Best Sports Photograph category at the same awards in 2006.

In December 2006 I was hired as the senior cricket writer for The Citizen, owned by the same company that owns the community group for which I was working.

Apart from my duties as cricket writer, I try and write as much athletics and road running as I can as I have an absolute passion for middle and long distance running.

When I'm at the office, I also do quite a lot of subbing of sports articles.

No journalist enjoys the monotonous grind of the office, but I do enjoy subbing and I believe it's playing an important part in my growth as a writer.

Being on the beat, however, will always rate as the best part of my job.