His words. Not ours.
The 26-year-old Taieri and newly minted Otago all-rounder certainly has a diverse background.
Before he arrived in Dunedin and lit up the club competition, he had been playing Major League Cricket for MI New York.
Former Black Caps left-armer Trent Boult presented him his first cap for New York.
Major League Cricket is a competition on the rise, he says.
His team-mates also included West Indies duo Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard, Australian Tim David and Afghanistan wrist spinner Rashid Khan.
That is quite the all-star cast.
But that is not the start of Clinton’s story.
He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but his family is South African and he was raised in Thabazimbi — a small iron mining town in the middle of, well, nowhere.
"If you went to Alice Springs and then went away for, like, another three hours, that would be Thabazimbi," Clinton said.
"I’m a bit of a mutt. I was born in the States, but all my family is South African and we moved over here when I was 10."
They moved to Tauranga. Clinton later moved to Hamilton to attend university and then to Auckland for work after he graduated.
But he was lured south this year by Sparks assistant coach Shawn Hicks.
"Shawn Hicks is actually my childhood best friend’s cousin.
"Hicks, and some of the guys down here, they sort of asked me to come down and try and give it a crack and it’s worked out in my favour so far."
Certainly has. Clinton made his debut for Otago against Auckland in a T20 in Alexandra on Sunday.
He was called in as a replacement for all-rounder Jake Gibson, who injured his hand during the 10-run win against Canterbury at Molyneux Park on December 27.
The Volts were cruising to a very comfortable win against Auckland, but were denied when the weather closed in.
Clinton, who is a batting all-rounder, did not get an opportunity to bat, but he did get to bowl and he made the highlight reel after all.
He got the wicket of Martin Guptill — one of the game’s greats.
Guptill is closing in on 350 games and 10,000 runs in the format.
He got a long-hop from Clinton and tried to pull it over the pavilion, but got a top edge which flew as far as the safe hands of Dale Phillips, who was stationed out on the boundary.
"Mate, you mean top-spinner," Clinton said, laughing.
"Yeah, I just didn’t want to end up on one of those highlight reels where you see him deleting me like 90m over my head.
"So, I was thinking of trying to bowl it hard into the pitch and got it a little bit shorter than I would have liked.
"He probably tried to hit me 110m instead of 100 and yeah, got caught on the boundary, so we’ll take it."
Absolutely.
While Clinton bowls right-arm off-spin, he is a left-handed top-order player and has been in rich form for Taieri.
He is the leading scorer in premier club cricket this season, having clubbed 295 runs at an average of 49.17 at an impressive strike rate of 158.6. He is also the joint-leading wicket-taker (13 at 6.92).
The Volts host Central Districts at Molyneux Park today.
Men’s Super Smash
Volts team
Dale Phillips, Jamal Todd, Max Chu (captain), Dean Foxcroft, Ruben Clinton, Llew Johnson, Leo Carter, Ben Lockrose, Andrew Hazeldine, Matt Bacon, Mason Clarke, Lahiru Vimukthi.
— Adrian Seconi, in Alexandra.
