The average punter's memory of Jeetan Patel will be Patel scrambling for safety against the world's premier fast bowler Dale Steyn. It was in South Africa and the BLACKCAPS were definitely not in the comfy position that they are now in and Patel quickly became the scapegoat, it was Patel who was laughed at and ripped on for not wielding the bat up to the lofty standards of those ahead of him in the batting line-up.

Clearly, there were endless amounts or stupidity in that situation. Steyn has made the world's best batsmen look like rabbits, let alone Jeetan Patel and it's wasn't like the rest of the BLACKCAPS batsmen at the time did much better. Patel quickly became public enemy number one for no real reason which makes his work in England with Warwickshire so awesome, awesome enough for Jeetz to get a big shout out.

Jeetz - as he will now formally be know as - was named in the PCA (Professional Cricketers Association) Team Of The Year yesterday. Jeetz can consider English internationals Alistair Cook, Stuart Broad, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Luke Wright and Alex Hales his pairs as they were also named in the Team Of The Year and if this team were to play a game, Jeetz would be the number one spinner.

That's not overly crazy when you consider that this was the fourth season in a row in which Jeetz has taken over 50 wickets in First Class cricket. Jeetz hasn't come close to that in Plunket Shield cricket on our shores thanks to the amount of cricket that Jeetz plays in England - in his last four FC seasons in England, Jeetz has bowled over 2,000 deliveries in each of those seasons, passing 3,000 deliveries in two seasons. In his last four kiwi summers, Jeetz hasn't bowled more than 2,00 deliveries.

That might skew the stats in Jeetz's favour, but when you consider that in those four English summers in which Jeetz has taken more than 50 wickets, his bowling average has only crept over 27 once - 2014 saw him take 52 wickets at an average of 30.01. But even that comes with a note as that season saw Jeetz bowl the most deliveries of any FC season that he's been involved in with 3,457.

Jeetz was able to pass 50 wickets this season thanks to a rather freakish back-end of the County Championship. Jeetz took 20 wickets in his last five games for Warwickshire, including this effort in which he took 7/38 in his last outing ... and some runs #boom.

Throwing poo in the face of his haters, Jeetz has done pretty well with the bat as well. Jeetz scored 543 runs in County Cricket with two half-centuries and a top score of 98. Not many kiwi bowlers will be able to tell their kids that they've done that.

If he really wanted to, I'm pretty sure that Jeetz could also demand a hefty price-tag in the IPL or any T20 league around the world. Jeetz has played T20 cricket for Warwickshire and the Birmingham Bears since 2009 and if taking 50 FC wickets in four seasons is impressive, then taking more than 10 wickets in a T20 season isn't too shabby either. Jeetz has done that in every season except 2012.

Three of those seasons have seen Jeetz take T20 wickets with an average less than 20 and he's only crept over 30 twice. His runs per over has only crept over 7 twice and his strike rate in T20 cricket has never ever ever been higher than 30 balls per wicket. I'd take that.

All this has come, well most of of has come with Jeetz being over 30 years old. He's now 35 and has just taken his second highest number of FC wickets in England which is an amazing feat from a lad who for whatever reason, whether thanks to his own doing or due to the opinions of others, never really produced consistently for the BLACKCAPS. 

That shouldn't take away from the great success that Jeetz has enjoyed over the past five years and I would consider that a fair reward for years of toil if I were Jeetz. It doesn't look like Jeetz will ever wear the black cap again, but that's all good and to me, that doesn't influence my love for Jeetz as a kiwi cricket fan. 

While the BLACKCAPS are enjoying some success, it's important to celebrate our players who are also enjoy great success outside of the national set up. I would go as far as saying that one of the factors that we should consider when judging the strength of cricket in Aotearoa is how many players are playing in England and around the world and the quality of their work. Jeetz and a bunch of other players serve as a great example that you don't need to be playing for the BLACKCAPS to be a great kiwi cricketer and hopefully Jeetz is also an example for other kiwi cricketers looking for a change or a chance.