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Junior cricket shows promising growth

The South Coast has the potential to become a force to be reckoned with.

A CRICKET club was started for juniors on the South Coast at the beginning of this year, at Port Shepstone Country Club. There are currently about 40 members.

This arose due to the need for more cricket for the juniors in the area. Year after year, talented youngsters have been chosen to represent Southern KwaZulu-Natal at the provincial trials in Durban.

However, at those trials it was apparent that the locals had not been exposed to enough cricket, and especially match practice, when compared to the Durban boys.

This had perpetuated the perception that South Coast cricketers are not strong enough and therefore never really get considered for higher honours.

Since its inception, and working with Southern KZN cricket, the junior club has been extremely active. During season, there are practices twice a week. Currently, there is a practice every Friday afternoon from 2.30pm to 4.30pm.

There have also been quite a few matches played against the SKZN U11s and SKZN U13s – thereby also providing match practice for these teams for when they go up to Durban for KZN trials.

Various coaches are involved, including Morne Bishop (senior coach), Derek Horlock, Prantosh and Sachin Kalkapersad and Dane Adendorf, as well as involvement from Ben Malamba from SKZN.

During the recent holidays, the club entered a team to play in Rudi Steyn’s cricket festival in which they performed extremely well. They played three matches, as well as attending a clinic with his coaches from the Free State.

The South Coast has also been extremely fortunate to receive the support and services of Level 3 coach Shaun Warner from Hillcrest.

He has travelled to the coast with experienced and qualified coaches every second Saturday to do individual coaching and the results have been phenomenal. He said that he “cannot believe how much talent there is on the coast”.

The club is currently arranging matches against some Durban clubs and is also trying to arrange some involvement and support from the KZN Cricket Union, in the form of clinics, coaching from Dolphin players, development and sponsorship of equipment.

The club is looking at sending a junior team to Welkom in October. Any businesses or individuals willing to get involved in any way can contact Nicole Klusener at 083 4433832.

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