Jonty takes school teams under his wing
It was the first time Jonty trained like this in South Africa.
In ten years’ time, the South African cricket team should be less of an embarrassment in the World Cup, if it depends on the enthusiasm with which primary school cricketers and their coaches took to the fields during White River Primary School’s tenth Cricket Week.
Hopefully the efforts Jonty Rhodes and Ryan Maron and his team of eight Cricket School of Excellence (CSE) coaches put into the week will also help.
The week was again divided into two tournaments; the first tournament for u/9, u/10 and u/11 teams (from June 30 to July 3) and the second for u/12 and u/13 teams (from July 3 to July 6).
Participating schools were White River, Barberton, Nelspruit, Nelspruit Primary, Malelane, Klipfontein, Kanonkop, Clivia, Uplands, Uthukela Sport Academy, Bergland, Laeveld, Steelpoort Akademie, Lydenburg and Monument. These 15 schools sent 456 boys in 37 teams and they were accompanied by 74 coaches.
Jonty was there from Monday to Saturday. Teams played three games each and have been coached three times by CSE and once had an individual session with Jonty as well as a group session with him.
It was the first time Jonty trained like this in South Africa.
His new approach is the “Jonty Rhodes way” and he is increasingly focusing on children.
Teams were housed in the hostels of White River Primary and Rob Ferreira High School and the event made possible through sponsorships of several Lowveld businesses.
For the first time the games were broadcast on Digi TV and live scoring was used during matches to keep everybody up to date.
Several local players excelled and were recognised at the prize giving that followed the training and matches. Mardus Hattingh was honoured as wicket keeper, Hanru van der Merwe as bowler, Keagan Hobbs as committed cricketer, and Luan Burger, Werner Weideman and Luan Herselman as improved cricketers.
