Morkel hits his straps like a smooth operator

FIRST‚ green smoothies. Now Pilates.

One of these days, Morne Morkel won’t yell “howzat!” when he launches into an appeal. Instead‚ he’ll say‚ with serenity and respect for the universe‚ “Like‚ shoo-waa‚ bru . . .”

The Proteas’s fast bowler‚ who claimed before the 2015 World Cup that he felt “a lot more energy when I bowl” after discovering a liking for liquidised raw vegetables‚ revealed on Monday that he had latched onto the programme of strength and mobility exercises invented early last century by German physical trainer, Joseph Pilates. Pilates has been an important part of his journey back to health.

Because of a bulging disc in his spine‚ Morkel didn’t play a Test from January 2016 until last Wednesday – when he featured in South Africa’s attack for the drawn first match of their series against New Zealand at University Oval in Dunedin.

“I did a lot of Pilates‚ a lot of work – I had a fantastic team in Cape Town‚” Morkel said in Wellington‚ where the second test starts on Thursday.

Morkel said getting his mojo back had been arduous and complex.

“I worked from the crease backwards‚ getting certain muscles to switch on and switch off at certain times,” he said.

“I had a massive bulge at the top of my core‚ which led to spasms and all those sorts of things.

“I needed to find a way to relax my upper core so my lower core could work. “It’s a complicated thing to explain.” “I need to manage my workload outside the South African season and be clever with that,” he added.

That meant giving the Indian Premier League (IPL) a skip this year.

“The important thing was to get myself fit for South Africa and to play well for South Africa.”