HOW DID YOU COME TO BE INVOLVED WITH SAVE THIS RHINO?
I wanted to create a film about conservation. I've been involved in it since 2013 and I needed to develop trust within the conservation world and (prove) that I was the real deal, in terms of wanting to make a difference. So it took a lot of time to really get to the right people, for them to understand what I was trying to do and how I was going to fit in under the radar to try to raise awareness.
IS IT VERY MUCH A PASSION PROJECT FOR YOU?
The genuineness that you see on screen, I think, is the only way to make a film. We're all friends and you know what? We've all got the same realistic goal. We want to save the rhino. This is not just a job. Someone asked me: "Is there something you want to do for the next 20-25 years?" I said "no". If we can save the rhino tomorrow, then I just want to go and play golf! Petronel Nieuwoudt (founder of the Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary) needs messengers, she needs awareness, she needs people branding what they do – that's my job.
YOUR FOCUS IS ON THE POACHING WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA'S KRUGER NATIONAL PARK. HOW CAN PEOPLE HELP HERE?
The UK market is a big market – the pound goes a long way in South Africa when you convert it into rands so people donating and being generous can really make a difference. We can save a species. There is an opportunity, financially, to put the technology in place in the southern part of the Kruger to make it a safe haven for animals. So we can do it and we believe that we're going to do it.
HOW DID YOU KEEP YOUR EMOTIONS IN CHECK AND HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO SHOW VIEWERS THE TRUTH, DESPITE ITS BRUTALITY?
You never ever get over the numbness when you've seen a dead animal and you know that it has absolutely no medicinal value and no bearing at all on life. You never get desensitised to what you're seeing and what you're smelling. That smell, it touches your clothes or gets on to your shoe or on to your fingers... it was everywhere. (The brutal scenes) are there to shock people. I do that on social media all the time, I put up the most graphic things on Instagram to say "listen, this is what's happening". I'm not going to hide it.
HAS THE TRANSITION FROM CRICKET MADE YOU RE-EVALUATE THINGS?
I just love the fact that we are just completely under the radar now and I don't have the bravado of international sport – the dealing with confidence, highs, lows, arrogance, just all the garbage that flows through professional sport. (Rescued rhino) Arthur doesn't have a clue who I am – in eight years' time I wouldn't be able to go into his pen. And when I walk out of my balcony (in South Africa) and there's buffalo, they don't know how many test runs I got. I'm just loving the fact that I can just be subservient, sort of, to nature and spend a lot of time bringing my children up in the bush. The most amazing thing is my three-year-old daughter, Rosie, you name a noise in the bush, she'll nail it. It's a great education for the kids.
:: Save This Rhino starts on National Geographic on Monday June 17.
