The school cricketers of Nelson Mandela Bay will get a golden opportunity to showcase their talent in a new national competition.
SA20 and Cricket South Africa (CSA) launched Schools SA20 last week, a tournament designed to discover and nurture cricket talent among both girls and boys countrywide.
Schools from all provinces will be competing for the title of Schools SA20 champions.
The competition started this month and will finish in March next year. Matches in the Eastern Province (EP) will take place until November, after which the serious business will start.
In January and February the regional play-offs will take place to determine which teams will contest the finals from March 13 to 15 next year.
The boys are involved in 55 knockout matches till November 16. The first of 15 Round Robin matches for the girls started yesterday and will continue till November 12.
The girls’ competition reflects the commitment of CSA to enhance women’s cricket.
This fits right in with the vision of the EP Cricket president, Donovan May, who wants to ensure grassroots development is on track.
“Our strategy will focus on building the game from the school level upwards, ensuring that we nurture young talent, while also placing an emphasis on the expansion of women’s cricket,” May said.
“We aspire for the next generation of Proteas to emerge from the Eastern Cape, with a particular focus on nurturing black African talent.
“This we can achieve by elevating the standard of school cricket across the province,” he added.
We have already seen fantastic performances by local cricketers in the new season.
When the Pearson High Cricket Festival takes place, you know the season is underway.
There were 25 teams who dished up quality cricket over four days in the 16th annual festival of the Gqeberha school.
The action ended earlier this month, and the host can be proud of what they produced on and off the field.
On the first day, Pearson won both T20 matches, beating Cambridge by 132 runs and Marlow by 66 runs.
Matthew Burton impressed against Cambridge with bat and ball. He scored 74 runs and took 2/3.
Pearson beat Stirling by an innings and 58 runs, in a time format match on the second day of the festival.
Jude Septoo batted beautifully on day three against Hudson Park. Septoo steered Pearson to victory by six wickets with an unbeaten 63 runs.
The only hiccup was on the last day when Boland Landbou won by six wickets, but this past weekend it was back to winning ways for Pearson.
They beat Muir College in Kariega by eight wickets. Cayden Wilson led the way with 5/21 and Septoo was amongst the runs again.
