Mini-cricket returns to Centurion
The focus is to recover the programme and get kids playing KFC Mini-Cricket again.
SuperSport Park in Centurion came to life on Saturday, when the first KFC Mini-Cricket Provincial Festival was hosted after a halt in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The festival featured special guests including Northerns players, Sibonelo Makhanya and Okuhle Cele.
With the national lockdown restrictions were reduced to level 2, this weekend presented the perfect opportunity to bring joy back to many young ones in the Northerns region as KFC celebrated 12 years of their sponsorship and 50 years of feeding families in South Africa.
This year’s theme for the KFC Mini-Cricket programme is “Imvuselelo” or “Recovery” – to resume mini-cricket in South Africa after a lost season.
(Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
Cricket SA’s mass participation manager Buhle Motshegoa said the focus of this year’s festival was to get the children playing again.
“We are really excited that we can host provincial festival again. Like everything else in South Africa, the programme was heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, so we thought Imvuselelo is fitting because we are recovering from what we have lost and rebuilding.
“The focus is to recover the programme and get kids playing KFC Mini-Cricket again. We would like to encourage schools, that are still a little hesitant to playing sport, to get back to the field and play cricket in a safe way, observing all protocols. The safety of the kids and the coaches is very important to us,” she said.
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The KFC Mini-Cricket kids were privileged to be coached by Makhanya and Cele, who all started their cricket in the mini-cricket programme.
“My love for the sport started in mini-cricket. I remember that my school team was short a player so I was asked if I would join the team. I did and I remember the fun that I used to have and how there were no boundaries in the game, so when I hit the ball I would run as many runs as I could,” said Makhanya.
This is one of the most significant development programmes in the South African sporting landscape. Its impact goes beyond the game of cricket. It brings youngsters from our diverse country together and contributes to the social cohesion in South Africa.
“KFC takes great pride in being able to invest into the youth, making a meaningful difference across the communities we operate in. In the last 12 years, through the KFC Mini-Cricket programme, we have been providing an opportunity to change kids’ lives so we are excited to continue with this legacy by starting the cricket ‘imvuselelo’ season,” said KFC CSI manager Andra Nel.
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