Alexandra Cricket Club is still counting the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic, with chairperson Thabang Selamolela noting that resources disappeared almost entirely during those years, creating hard-to-reverse effects.

Maintenance lapsed, events became harder to run, and the club lost quality coaches, who turned instead to private lessons once the club itself could no longer sustain them. That history sat behind a mini-cricket festival held in Alexandra on August 22, aimed at developing young players from U9 to U11.

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Hosted by the club and sponsored by KFC and the Central Gauteng Lions, the event drew participation from multiple primary schools, including Iphuteng, Bramley, M.C Weiler, Ekukhanyisweni and Dr Knak, among others. The festival, for a club rebuilding almost from scratch, was a deliberate step to get children onto a field again and get schools invested in the sport.

Selamolela said that rebuilding efforts now hinge on reach, drawing in every primary school in the area and restoring the club’s teenage divisions from the ground up. “We intend to now have a competition where all the primary schools will be able to compete,” he said.

The rebuild is complicated by cricket’s low profile in a community where football, rugby and netball remain far more accessible entry points. Selamolela said the sport simply demands more of newcomers. Where football and rugby can be played with minimal equipment, Selamolela said cricket has historically favoured those with means. He noted that a single bat for a teenager can cost thousands of rands. This is a reality the club has had to work around rather than ignore, making its results stand out.

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Selamolela said several of the club’s players have secured bursaries on the back of their cricket, opening doors to better-resourced schools despite Alexandra’s own limited facilities.

Cricket Hub head coach Dan Phaka said that the resource gap is felt at school level too – without facilities of their own, schools produce few children who already know the game’s basics.

Even so, he said the pipeline the club is building is starting to hold. Players who come through are increasingly staying involved. “They are feeding the club; other children can come to practices, and they graduate from mini-cricket to hard ball cricket,” he said.

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