After 32 years in the business, Bidvest Wanderers Head Groundsman Bethwel Buthelezi is starting to reap the fruits of the his labour as he looks to collect his second consecutive Cricket South Africa Head Groundsman of the Season award. Buthelezi took the award at the 2016 CSA Awards, a year after being promoted to the curator role by the Gauteng Cricket Board to replace long-term colleague Chris Scott. Following another successful summer, in which the Proteas hosted Sri Lanka, the 53-year-old Buthelezi believes that they have had a successful season thus far with only domestic cricket matches left to prepare for. The Msinga-born Buthelezi commended long-term colleague and friend Scott, who he has worked with for over 20 years, for his contribution and teachings over the years. After taking over from Scott in 2015, Buthelezi believes that everything is on track and his staff is pleased with his management. With seven pitches to manage and juggle around between Test matches, international ODI and T20 as well as domestic cricket in First Class and List A, Buthelezi explains the criteria he uses to select which strip to prepare for which games. In his specialty, Buthelezi emphasizes the importance of home ground advantage and the importance of the pitch preparation for home teams especially at international level. He further reaffirms that he and his staff have an open door policy to all home team captains to openly discuss the kind of conditions preferred for upcoming games.