Phil Edmonds, the Rhodesian-born former England cricketer, will need all his guile to bowl his way through tortuous legal claims on his potentially lucrative oil and mineral interests in Africa.
Edmonds, who won 51 caps for England bowling left-arm spin, has designs on becoming a major force in African mining. This ambition hinges on key decisions set to be made by African governments in the next few weeks.
Sources close to Edmonds say they expect a resolution within days on whether his UK-quoted mining firm, White Nile, will keep what it believes are its rights to an oil exploration block in the south of Sudan. Edmonds's firm struck a deal in the wake of a peace agreement thrashed out between the government and warring militias. White Nile enjoyed huge share gains when it was first announced in 2005.
But Total, the French energy giant, complained that it had been awarded precisely the same block in a deal signed in 1980. The row forced a temporary suspension of White Nile shares in London as the Stock Exchange sought to clarify the position.
Although White Nile says it has already spent £9m on seismic testing in its southern Sudan block last July, the company was asked to leave the country. Lawyers have subsequently been attempting to meet leading Sudanese officials. There are indications this weekend that a resolution may have been reached.
For Edmonds this is just one half of a desperate battle to lay claim to some of Africa's great mineral wealth. Another of his firms, Central African Mining and Exploration (Camec), has suffered a similar blow in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Camec last month launched an all-share £720m bid for Katanga, a Canadian-owned rival in DRC.
The move would create the world's largest cobalt producer. Katanga also owns the third-largest known copper resource in Africa. But just one day after the announcement of a possible bid, DRC's justice ministry revoked the licence of a key Camec concession, sparking a 40 per cent collapse in its share price.
Camec's legal counsel in DRC's capital Kinshasa appealed directly to President Joseph Kabila to intervene. Camec sources say the company is a pawn in a broader dispute. After years of civil war which resulted in an estimated three million Congolese dead, elections last year returned a semblance of order to the ravaged country.
Local warlords, neighbouring countries such as Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda and a handful of mining firms all clashed violently over the country's reserves of diamonds, coltan - a vital mineral used in the manufacture of mobile phones - oil and copper in a brutal five-year war. Dozens of lucrative concessions signed during those turbulent times are now being revisited.
It is in this maelstrom that Camec says it is caught up. The first signs that things were going awry emerged after a major shareholder in Camec, Billy Rautenbach, was seemingly thrown out of DRC last July. Rautenbach is one of the pivotal figures in African mining and during the Nineties was the head of Congo's state mining firm, having enjoyed the support of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. After Rautenbach's ejection last summer, Camec said this had nothing to do with the company's status in DRC. But some interpreted the move as a prelude to a tougher working environment.
So it has proved. Camec's acquisition of Katanga - which was to have been underwritten with its own shares - has been stymied. A faction within the company supported by minority shareholder Dan Gertler were also opposed to the bid.
Camec insiders are delighted a court ruling two weeks ago re-awarded its disputed licence. But the government challenged the validity of that decision. No matter where he turns, Edmonds, it seems, is on a very sticky wicket.