Khosa Cricket rewards members in tough pandemic year

It was an emotional event when the coaches, players and parents of Khosa Cricket gathered for their end of the 2019/ 2020 season awards ceremony on Saturday, 24 April.

Coaches spoke about the many memories their teams made over the past year and the hardships they faced. They were especially impacted by Covid-19, often in very direct ways.

“It’s a day of celebration for us,” started Danie Volkwyn, Khosa Cricket’s chairman. “It’s a day for celebrating our club, the achievements of our players; and it’s a day when we celebrate the players who are not receiving awards today, because without them we won’t be sitting here today”.

The celebration started with a round of ‘fines’, much like they do after games, where penalty shooters or drinks are given to players who made funny mistakes. This time, members had to drink apple sours for things like hitting a six and almost striking their own daughter in the crowd, having a couple too many brandy specials at the bar when watching other games, and for proposing that the club starts an over-50’s steam and actually going through with it.

After a good laugh, things turned slightly more serious when the coaches made their way to the front to hand over certificates of merit to the various best batsmen, best bowlers and most committed players, and the captain’s award for each team.

The mood turned sombre when coach Peter van Wyk spoke. “Pardon me for being emotional,” he said while doing his best to hold back a tear, and inviting Anton and Anso Bothma to the front. Their son, Ruben had sadly passed away during the season, and Peter wished to award Ruben as Best Bowler of the SA2 team; Best Bowler for SU2; Captain’s Award for SU2; and Most Promising Bowler for the 2019/ 2020 season.

“I used to say to the boys, ‘just breathe’ whenever they looked so nervous that they won’t be able to face the first ball. That’s where Ruben and my friendship started, because when Ruben comes in, he comes in with a smile on his face. The second reason is that many youngsters of 15 years and older play for me. Every time I’d ask them ‘what is your ambition; what’s your plan for this specific game?’; it’s also about their ambitions, their plan in life. With Ruben,” he paused as he wiped away the tears, “there was always a plan. I’m so sorry,” he said as he handed the awards to Ruben’s parents.

Lastly, the big Central Gauteng Lions award trophies were handed out, ranging from awards for Ladies and Men’s Best Batsman, Best Bowling, and Cricketer of the Year, to special thanks trophies for important club members who supported the teams through the years.

Danie added that, “The season kicked off in September 2019 and we played into December as usual. We had our Christmas holiday break and little did we know what we were going to return to. We came back and, after a month, everything came to a grinding halt due to the global pandemic.

“As lockdown measures started lifting, I was approached by oom Doug (Poole) to become involved in the senior cricket committee and stand as chairman. I was a bit surprised but I was also very honoured. We had our first virtual meeting in 2020 which became the norm. As the new season approached, there was still no confirmation that sports would be played. Fortunately, cricket was one of the first codes to get the ball rolling, and Khosa was one of the first clubs to get clearance. We chose to play internal games and work on our internal structures to take stock of our player base. This year we started with our inaugural T20 tournament, and that will be our format going forward. We are very excited about what’s coming.”