The Warriors left-arm wrist spinner smiles as we sit down to chat at the Media Day for the YesPlay Pro20 Finals. He looks relaxed, and his steel-blue eyes are engaging.

It has been an excellent tournament for him so far, as his contributions place him second on the wickets charts. His team has finished top of the Super 8 table, and he talks easily about the Gqeberha-based unit.

“(It’s been) a bit of a stop-start season (in the Pr020), we had a few washed out, but I think we had the confidence to rely on last year’s performances.” He goes on to talk about the format of the tournament and how it has changed some of the approach. “The team was able to build into it quite slowly, which was nice.”

He explains the impact of the longer duration on his particular art-form, “The amount of games gives you a bit more of a range to take a bit of time, and it takes a bit of learning, especially in the T20 format, as a leg spinner, to the other formats.”

“So, it’s nice that you have the matches to see what’s working, and to also understand bowling in places like Oudtshoorn and the Wanderers (which) are two completely different things. It’s quite nice that we had that range (of matches) to play with this year, and I think for a younger leg spinner, or younger spinner, there’s so much bigger (a) range of learning, and a way to improve quicker, which is hopefully how they used it.”

I can tell from his response that his role as a Senior Pro at the Warriors is one that he is enjoying. We spend a bit of time chatting about his journey, which led him to the Warriors and MI Cape Town after spells at the Titans, the Warriors, Border and the Garden Route Badgers.

One of the features of the tournament has been the opportunity to go to the Division 2 unions, and Thomas enthuses about his visit to his former home of Oudtshoorn.

“It was fun, good to see everyone again. Also good to see them doing really well. Albertus Kennedy (CEO of the Badgers) is doing a superb job, and they’re competing.”

The Badgers were the stand-out Division 2 team, winning 3 of their Super 8 matches, and Thomas is understandably impressed with them: “There’s some really, really good cricketers in the system. It’s good to see a platform where they can express their skills.”

Talking of cricketers in the system, we turn our attention to the youngsters in the Warriors set-up, and Kaber’s role as a senior player. The Warriors are the T20 competition defending champions and reached the final of the 4 Day competition last season. They are a team on the up.

“Yes, I think it was very important for us that it wasn’t a one-season thing. We spoke a lot about that, how we’re going to keep that momentum and carry it on.”

On his role with the younger players in the squad, he is very generous in his praise: “To be honest, I think as a senior player, they make my job really easy. We’ve got a bunch of youngsters that are not really youngsters anymore. You’ve got the likes of Jordan Hermann, those guys who are playing SA and SA A.”

“Credit to Robbie and the team; we’ve built the Warriors over the course of a few seasons now. You see those guys carrying that responsibility now. As a senior player, it’s actually quite easy. I would say I think they’ve (Robin Peterson and his team) put together a really good squad in the sense of enough experience, a bit of domestic and local experience, international experience.”

He talks about the role that other senior players have in the squad, and their influence.

“You know, someone like Duane Olivier, you don’t see him on the field very often, but what he brings to the Warriors is huge. We have some extremely talented youngsters that might have been overlooked at some other places, who are showing how good they can play.”

The blue eyes sparkle a little more as I ask about the spin-bowling talent that he sees coming through in wrist spin.

“Everywhere you go around the country now and you get net bowlers coming in, there’s always a leggie or two, and they’re ripping it, where I don’t think that was the case 10 years ago. That’s exciting to see. I always enjoy trying to work with them, see where I can help them. There’s definitely some exciting talent around.”

He doesn’t commit to naming the good leggies in the system currently, perhaps in case he misses one of his fellow tweakers. There are several that come to my mind, with Josh Breed, Nqaba Peter and the Badgers’ Réagon Rhode all sitting with more than 10 wickets in this season’s Pro20.

Thomas Kaber is top of that list, and for good reason. He has done the hard yards, and the 34-year-old is in the prime of his career as a wrist spinner. After I ask him about the youngsters, he has a chuckle as he tells me that he still wants to play for a good few more years, and I can understand why. He yearns to give and achieve more, even though he has the aura of a man who is content with where he is in his cricketing journey.