ESA Gangat of Pearson High will be one of the most experienced players at the upcoming Khaya Majola u/19 Cricket Week.
He will represent Eastern Province for the third consecutive year at this tournament.
The Majola Week will take place in Cape Town from December 16 to 20.
Gangat is one of three EP players who featured in last year’s event.
The other two are the South African Schools hockey player, Kian Cambier (Grey High), and the head boy of Westering, Khan Hamza.
“It is a great honour to play in such a prestigious tournament for the third year in a row,” Gangat said when we caught up with him between his examination preparations.
“With it being my matric year and my last school cricket tournament, I’ll definitely be looking to make the best of it and enjoy my time on the field,” Gangat added.
Gangat will again be a key player for EP at the week with his leadership qualities and abilities as an all-rounder.
It will be an extremely competitive week but Gangat believes the experience in the group will be to the benefit of the EP team.
“We’ve got a well-rounded team this year with myself playing my third week and Cambier and Khan returning for their second week to add experience to the group.
“I know the week will be a challenge, but I believe we have enough talent to cover all bases.
“We will be ready to put in some good performances,” Gangat explained.
There are also five players in the squad who represented EP at the national u/16 week last year.
That experience of competing at a national week will also help these EP players to step up to a higher level now and motivate their teammates.
Those players are Jadwin Cona (Daniel Pienaar), Jaydin Damons, Randy Syce (both Woodridge College), Mdyesha Luphole (Graeme College) and Cayden Wilson (Pearson High).
Grey High produced the most members for the squad with four players of the Gqeberha school in the group of 13.
Pearson and Woodridge have two players in the squad and there is one each from KwaZakhele, Daniel Pienaar, Westering, Graeme College and Nico Malan.
Gangat has been a stellar performer for Pearson High in his school career and just misses out on the building of the High- Performance Indoor Cricket Centre.
Pearson announced the centre will consist of six specialised pitches. Each pitch will be designed to suit the variations of seam and spin bowling.
A state-of-the-art pitch vision camera system will be installed to analyse data regarding bowling and batting techniques.
The EP u/19 squad is: Esa Gangat, Cayden Wilson (both Pearson), Kian Cambier, Xander Elkington, Likhona Gcora, Marco Giaconi (all Grey High), Jadwin Cona (Daniel Pienaar), Jaydin Damons, Randy Syce (both Woodridge College), Khan Hamza (Westering High), Luphole Mdyesha (Graeme College), Indiphile Tshisa (KwaZakhele) and Dawid Vermaak (Nico Malan).
