Johannesburg - The Momentum eKasi Challenge has become a fun and important addition to the South African cricket calendar, providing a stage for young talent, while also taking the senior professional game to the doorstep of an audience that may otherwise not have the means to watch domestic players.
There is particular significance in this year’s match-up between the Titans and Lions taking place at the Soweto Cricket Oval - previously known as the Elkah Oval - which is widely viewed as the home of cricket in the area. For Lions coach Geoffrey Toyana there is special meaning in that it is something of a home-coming’, to a venue where it all started for him.
Although just a good pre-season hit out, there is added significance in that the match does offer Toyana and the new Titans coach Mark Boucher the opportunity to assess some younger talent.
In Toyana’s case there is a lot of excitement around 18-year-old all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, who the Lions signed in the off-season, beating off challenges from other franchises who were desperate to sign the former SA Under-19 captain.
In addition both squads have been heavily involved in pre-season training, which in the Lions’s case has involved a lot of fitness work - including stints in the gym doing rounds of boxing - and this match does give the players the chance to see if their skills are up to scratch with the season just a month away from starting.
Perhaps more importantly the eKasi Challenge gives cricket supporters in Soweto the opportunity to view first hand the skills of some of the country’s top talent. Previous editions have been held in Mamelodi and at the Dobsonville Oval where crowds - mainly school kids - have enthusiastically embraced the game.
The kind of impression the sport makes can only really be measured in a few years time - but if it encourages even 10 of the approximately 5 000 expected to watch today’s match, to take up the sport in can be deemed a success.
* Cricket SA acceded to a request from the national team’s management to change the dates for first two rounds of the Sunfoil Series, allowing those players not involved in the ODI series against Australia game time ahead of the Test tour Down Under which commences in mid-October.
The Sunfoil Series would have started on October 6, but will now start on Wednesday, October 5. The second round of matches will commence on Tuesday, October 11.
The Star