A tower looks down on the cricket ground at the University of Fort Hare, a remnant of the military fort that gave its name to the alma mater of Nelson Mandela.
It looks over the rolling hills and mountains around Alice, and over the academy that is growing the future of black cricket in South Africa.
“We had (Warriors player) Vuyisa Makhapela come from here,” said Mfuneko Ngam, the head coach of Fort Hare cricket and an integral part of the Joint Venture Rural Academy Project. He pointed into the distance, to the left of the tower. “He stays over there on that mountain. When I first came here, he had given up on cricket. He didn’t want anything to do with cricket. I tried to convince him, but he didn’t want to. Then eventually he got involved and began to do well.
“Then he got a Warriors contract and has been with them for two years. That was one of the prouder moments.”
There are others who have come from Fort Hare. Thandolwethu Mnyaka and Somile Seyibokwe are with the Warriors, Ayabulela Gqamane, the Warriors’ destroyer, comes from Mdingi, the village of Makhaya Ntini.
The Joint Venture Rural Academy Project is, said Haroon Lorgat, CEO of Cricket South Africa, to “advance black rural cricketers through a well-organised set-up that can contribute meaningfully to the CSA development pipeline”.
It is also seeks to grow officials, coaches and staff. Momentum, one of cricket’s biggest sponsors in recent years, came through with a sizeable investment of close on R500000.
Over the years, Fort Hare, with the push of Greg Hayes – CSA’s Development Consultant – and the man who spotted the talent of Ntini, has built the cricket ground from what was a “heap of cement and rubble”.
“In 2008, we decided to develop a rural cricket academy here,” said Hayes. “In 2004, it had become a bird aviary, a white elephant because of no funding. The pitch was in a mess. A memorandum of understanding was signed between CSA and Fort Hare.
“We upgraded the facility: drainage, sightscreens, nets, built solid white brick walls as sightscreens. We are building a second cricket field. We got soccer off that field, which was a major accomplishment.
“Scoreboard was a problem. Lafarge gave us all the concrete for nothing, built the steel, then someone galvanised it, then someone provided us with transport to take the steel of the scoreboard here. It was all about relationships and people with a passion for developing the sport.”
The building is now named after Krish Mackerdhuj, the late president of what was then the United Cricket Board. On the day we visited, three-dozen children were training there. Hayes believes development can only be successful if the coaches go to the very lowest level and start from there. It begins with KFC mini-cricket, then placing potential stars with the best cricket schools in the area: Dale, Queens and Selbourne. Lifeskills training and academic support are integrated.
Nandile Tjale did not become a professional cricket player, but he graduated with honours in human movement studies and is in charge of conditioning for the academy. Prince Dubula, a psychologist, is on hand for counselling. Rural development is not just about black cricket, as Dale Steyn and Lance Klusener have shown. Shannon Musto, was, said Hayes: “The First white guy who came to the programme. He learnt Xhosa, which is the most important thing, and is now a conditioning coach with Border.”
Lorgat said the absence of government support for sports development in the Eastern Cape was “startling”.
“We need to unlock that help from Government. We cannot do the social re-engineering we want to without the help of the State. People like Momentum help us get to where we want to be, but it needs to be more. We do not have enough resource for what we need to do.
“I don’t believe schools cricket is what it ought to be. What you have done here, supplements that. Without a solid base, we won’t have players who can keep us at No1 in the world.
“When I talk of rural cricket, we have an elaborate plan. Centres surrounded by hubs, nine regional centres, 46 hubs around the country. We are trying to set up something that will complement schools cricket. We want to take a more formal role in schools cricket. If we leave schools cricket alone, then it may head down a path from which it may not be able to come back.”
For Danie van der Bergh of Momentum, it is about “unconditional support” for development and not points scoring.
“For us this is not about rand values, this about our persona and business values. You’ve built a dream here, it’s not our dream, but we love your dream and we are buying into your dream. We want to leave a legacy that will unite people in this country. We can’t ask for more than that.”
Ngam, the man who many of the players want to emulate, believes they are on the right path: “We are trying to build a holistic cricketer. With the new sponsor and the involvement, we are going to be able to do that better.
“If we can have more of these academies, then of course it will be better. When I started here, the guys didn’t want to study, they just wanted to play cricket. It was important to get them to understand that they needed something to fall back on if their cricket didn’t work out. Having those qualifications takes pressure of them later in life.”