Heartbreak as young cricketer’s dream to conquer world dashed

The mother of a mentally impaired Buffalo City Metro cricketer due to jet out of the country to England next month with Team SA had to break the bad news to his son after IQ levels ruled him out of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Siphelele Mkolweni, 19, of Ginsburg was initially selected to be one of seven athletes from the Eastern Cape to represent South Africa in England from July 6 in the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (Inas) games.

But his dreams were dashed after an IQ test commissioned by the Eastern Cape education department showed that his IQ level was beyond 75, which made him ineligible for the Inas world championship.

To be eligible for selection for the games, athletes’ IQ and adaptive behaviour should be 75 or below, said the South African sports association for the intellectual impaired national sports convenor, Kenneth Kubayi yesterday.

But the teenager’s mother Nolusapho said her son was so devastated that he was considering dropping out of school.

“When I broke the news to him, he was very angry and disappointed. He said he wanted to quit school because he felt his teachers let him down.

“But as his mother I will not let him drop out of school,” she said.

“Everyone knew he was going to London. He was always practicing, saying he wanted to win over there and now he is no longer going.”

The St Patrick’s School Special School pupil scored too high in the first IQ arranged by the provincial education department.

Unhappy with the results, the school sent him to another psychologist.

The second result found that his IQ level did qualify him to make the team, St Patrick’s School sports management head of department, Siphelo Joya said.

He said the shortage of sport psychologists in the province was devastating, saying if the young allrounder had consulted one from the beginning they would come back with a different conclusion.

“In this province we don’t have sport psychologists and that is a huge problem to schools like ours.

“Because we see the potential in these children and they have talent but things like these are disappointing,” he said.

Kubayi said that based on Siphelele’s IQ, he was not supposed to be at the school.

“It’s unfortunate that Siphelele’s IQ was found to be way beyond 75 and this makes him not eligible to participate in Inas world championship.

“This is raising eyebrows to say our schools are admitting learners who are not supposed to be on such schools,” he said.

Dr Kirsten van Heerden, sports psychologist and national eligibility officer responsible for assessing athletes who are intellectually impaired before they can compete abroad was unable to give more information on the decision but said they followed protocol.

“Unfortunately I am unable to comment on this athlete as all reports are confidential.

“I can say however there are very clear guidelines set out by the International Federation for Intellectual Disability Sport for athletes to be classified as intellectually impaired and thus eligible to compete in international competitions as an athlete,” she said.

Van Heerden said South Africa adhered to the guidelines when assessing local athletes and Mkolweni did not meet the standard requirements as stipulated by the guidelines.