Young Border stars at camp
It’s an exciting opportunity for these young men to express themselves
Three local South African U19 cricket hopefuls are currently involved in a Cricket South Africa (CSA) Talent Acceleration Programme (TAP) camp at the Powerade Centre of Excellence in Pretoria.
Nonelela Yikha from Hudson Park, Emihle Mqogi from Dale College and Matthew Fourie from Selborne College were the three Border players picked for the camp, and make up most of the Eastern Cape contingent, with only Grey High's Luke Beaufort being the other.
Yikha and Beaufort are the most experienced of the lot, both having represented the SA U19s on their tour of India in February and March and they are becoming firmly engrained in the SA U19 set-up ahead of next years 2020 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, being held in South Africa.
Mqogi and Fourie have both however now been given a firm indication that they are in management’s plans ahead of the showpiece tournament and they will be eager to take as much as they can from the camp.
In all, 28 players from around the country were selected. The camp officially got under way on Thursday and comes to an end on Sunday.
“It is an exciting opportunity for these young men to really go out there and express themselves and hopefully get an opportunity to get selected for future tours,” said SA U19 head coach Lawrence Mahatlane during the first day’s training.
“Whether you play (in future tours) or not, it doesn’t stop them from staking a claim for the World Cup early next year. We’ve got a couple of internal warm-up games but what is also important is that, in-between and during these games, we will still have skills-based activities being done.
“We will also be having a lot of lectures afterwards, just working on cricket awareness, about helping them understand what is required to play at a certain level and hopefully getting them to really own that process.”
With a number of key objectives set for the camp, Mahatlane will be looking for a few main attributes from the players.
“The key word for me is attitude. I am looking at what kind of attitude they have. We’ve had a couple of weeks where there has been no cricket, so we want to see where they are and how much work they have put in. They are all talented but there are more talented cricketers out there, more than this 28 that are here,” admitted Mahatlane.
“We are looking for good character, guys who you would want to take to war with.”
Coca-Cola South Africa under-19s TAP squad:
Lehan Botha, Ruan Terblanche, Akeem Minnaar, Jordaan Lee Woolf, Imraan Philander, Siya Plaatjie, Achille Cloete (World Sports Betting Cape Cobras); Francis Moran, Caleb Pillay, Mondli Khumalo, Lifa Ntanzi (Hollywoodbets Dolphins); Andrew Louw, Ruan Cronje, Pheko Moletsane (VKB Knights); Levert Manje, Bryce Parsons, Bakang Motswiri, Jamie Copeland, Khanya Cotani, Jack Lees, Karabelo Matlawe, Odirile Modimokoane (bizhub Highveld Lions); Wesley van der Spuy, Jarred Jardine (Multiply Titans); Luke Beaufort, Emihle Mqogi, Nonelela Yikha, Matthew Fourie (Warriors)...
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