for Zimbabwe. During the first of the three match test series against Sri Lanka at Harare in 1999-2000, Neil bravely took on Muttiah Muralitharan who was regarded as one of the best off-spinners of that era. Neil even smashed four boundaries in a single over in the first test and he was the only other player in the Zimbabwean side except Andy Flower to take charge on Muralitharan. After the Zimbabwe's tour of England in 2000, he left Zimbabwe to join Western Province of South Africa to play in the Supersport Series and ZCU confirmed that it would not renew the contract with him following his unceremonious departure. He departed due to the disputes over his payment from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. He also endured difficult strained relationship which led to creative differences with the then head coach of Zimbabwe David Houghton forced him to move back to South Africa two years after making his international debut for Zimbabwe. He and his teammate Murray Goodwin's unceremonious exits from Zimbabwe cricket earmarked the beginning of Zimbabwe's slide in the 2000s. County cricket He spent one year at Leicestershire County Club as their overseas player. He made an imminent impact in his first year in county cricket in 1997 as he ended up his debut season piling up 819 runs at a stellar average of 63 in 12 matches including two centuries. He alsoended up as the top runscorer for Leicestershire in 1997 English cricket season. He also played in the Lancashire League for two seasons and also had two season stint with North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League. In 2001, he returned to county cricket in England as he was signed up by Hampshire for the 2001 county season but his nagging injury stopped him from bowling very often. He scored a century against Durham in the 2001 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy on his return to county cricket. He was offered a further one-year contract with the club for 2002. He was a regular member of the Hampshire county team until the end of 2002 season. Coaching career In 2010, bizarre reports mysteriously appeared in online citing that Johnson is set to be appointed as the young yoga instructor of Indian national cricket team by the Board of Cricket Control in India during the test tour of South Africa especially after India's tough loss at Centurion. It was believed that