The lessons learnt were evident at the 2-day cricket

 

My sporting highlight of the weekend? ….. I was only at one event all weekend, and the SA cricket team is the workiest of works in progress at the moment, so it has to be the St David’s Marist cricket festival.

I’ve said plenty  about how much I like the concept of non-limited overs cricket at school level and the cricketing and life lessons that can be taught via it. There were certainly many of those evident over the four days. Two of the captains declared their first innings while their teams were behind. Both those games ended in draws anyway, but they understood the concept of risking losing to have a chance of victory. In contrast, there several cases where sides batted on too long and the captains were kicking themselves, I’m sure, when the opposition were able to hold on for the draw, six or seven down, and still 50 or 60 runs short. 

There were 11 centuries, and over 30 half centuries scored in the 12 matches. Batsmen were allowed to play themselves in, and several went to bed 50 plus not out at the end of the day and had to come back the next morning and kick on from there.

There were also 14-odd five wicket hauls, all by spin bowlers. They all bowled a lot of overs and some shipped a lot of runs in the process, but they were given the opportunity to learn what their craft is all about, and their role in the complex and multi-faceted game of cricket.

Then there are the social and life lessons learnt by teenagers spending four days doing one thing in one place in the hectic times they live in. I saw teams sitting quietly in the shade watching the action together (I suspect the coaches were forcing that one); I saw an entire team disappear down the hillside at The Higher Ground to look for a lost ball; I saw many rounds of applause for opponents’ performances – 50s and 100s scored , unplayable balls bowled, and at the man of the day ceremonies at the end of each; day I saw a wicketkeeper take off his gloves and tie a batsman’s loose shoelace; and a fielder stretching out the leg of a cramping batsman.

And at the end of it all I watched the three prize winners – batsman, bowler and player of the festival – being mobbed and congratulated by players from all the teams (along with many requests for them to give them the kit and vouchers that went along with the awards).

You don’t get those sorts of things with other games. That’s cricket, and it’s the reason why so much of what we see in sport these days, including at school level, simply is not.