Homecoming for ‘fully converted Kiwi’ Neil Wagner

“Wagner is my surname now.”

It just does not translate in print, does it?

Neil Wagner, the South African-born, New Zealand-based Test cricketer, was explaining to local reporters that he prefers his last name to be pronounced in an English-style, rather than an Afrikaans one.

Here, in Centurion where he grew up, he would be called “Vaggner”. The W is a V and the G comes from the throat. If you’re sitting in a quiet room try it. There, in Dunedin where he lives now, he is called Wagner, as is wag the tail with a soft G. You don’t need to try this one, just turn on the television tomorrow and you will hear it. If you ever run into Neil Wagner be sure to use the second.

“It’s an English country and that’s where my respect is at the moment. I am a fully converted Kiwi now,” he explained, to the giggles of the journalists who tried to bait him into answering questions in Afrikaans. He assured us he still speaks the language to his family, who, for the first time, were all at the ground to see him play.

“Some …

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