Tuks cricketers challenged to dominate at the highest level
The Assupol Tuks cricket team this past season again did not have their equal on club level and there were many success stories to celebrate at the club's recent awards ceremony.
Assupol Tuks head coach, Kruger van Wyk, laid down the gauntlet during the club’s annual awards function last week when he challenged his players to be good enough to represent South Africa during the 2023 Cricket World Cup Tournament.
Van Wyk, who has represented New Zealand in nine tests, was quite specific in what he expected from them, emphasising that to be best means there can never be any complacency.
“It is always great winning trophies and tournaments locally, but we need to make a difference internationally. I think players often get it wrong thinking if they get to represent their country that they have made it, but that should never be it. It is actually not that difficult to become an international cricketer. The real challenge for any young player should be to become genuinely a cricketing great. That entails dominating at the highest level for some time,” Van Wyk explained his point of view.
According to Van Wyk, Assupol Tuks has no shortage of talented cricketers. However, the challenge for him as coach and also for other administrators, is to get the job done helping these talented players to fulfil their true potential.
“To the players, I want to say look at the opportunities that are on offer. There are a lot of them, make the most of it,” said Van Wyk.
Assupol Tuks who is celebrating a century of cricketing excellence this year, certainly seems to be the club where talented cricketers become stars.
At some point last year seven former Assupol Tuks cricketers were playing for the Proteas. Faf du Plessis (captain), Aiden Markram and Lungi Ngidi are all former Assupol Tuks players who are representing South Africa at the current World Cup.
As far as local tournaments were concerned Assupol Tuks dominated winning more than 90% of the matches they contested.
Francois van Heerden who scored 188 runs in the Northerns Cricket Premier League Qualifiers as well as 853 runs in the Premier League, received that award as the batsman of the year. He is also the player’s player of the year.
Olebogeng Buffel, who took a total of 27 wickets in local tournaments, is the bowler of the year. He also received the award as the most improved player. He started his cricket career at Tuks as a junior player debuting for Tuks in 2018 by playing for the third team. But as it is said, you can’t keep a good man down forever.
Ruben Trumpelmann who has fine-tuned the art of impacting on the outcome on a game nearly every time he played for Assupol Tuks is the cricketer of the year. Nileshnie Moonsamy is Assupol Tuks women’s player of the year.
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