Local young stars take on country’s best
Two local cricketers had their chance to face off against some of SA's best during the annual Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week from December 16 to 20 in Port Elizabeth.
Irfaan Hoosen, a pupil of Hoërskool Rob Ferreira, and Clem Murray of Uplands College were chosen to compete as part of the Mpumalanga u/19 team.
Clem is one of Uplands cricket’s brightest stars and received the award for Uplands best all-round sportsman for 2015, while Irfaan was awarded the trophy for best senior cricket player of the year at Hoërskool Rob Ferreira’s prestige evening.
Two-hundred cricketers of Cricket SA’s 16 provincial unions were invited to the five-day tournament and competed in three formats of the game, timed cricket, 50 overs and T20.
Other players from the region included Jacques Fourie, Muhammed Jina, Ozayr Karodia and Francois Kroukamp.
Mpumalanga managed wins against South Western Districts and Easterns, had no result against the Easterns, drew their match against Limpopo and lost against the Free State. Gauteng was the overall winner of the tournament for the third consecutive year.
The cricket week is a crucial stepping stone for schoolboy cricketers who want to progress to professional cricket and wish to represent South Africa at an international level. Since 1994, the tournament has seen over 60 players who participated play for the Proteas, including three of the current national players: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis.
To highlight the best talents on the field, a judging panel selected a Coca-Cola Hero of the Day, a daily award to honour the player that stood out the most during each match.
They weren’t necessarily looking for the typical man of the match, but someone who producted an extraordinary hero moment, like the wicketkeeper who made an amazing dive catch or a player showing sportmanship and embodying the spirit of the “gentleman’s game”.
At the end of the week, an u/19 South African Schools and u/19 South African Schools Colts team was selected to play against Eastern Province representative teams on December 21.
A Coca-Cola u/19 Proteas team was also chosen by Cricket SA to play in the upcoming ICC u/19 World Cup in Bangladesh from January 22 to February 14.
