My sporting highlight of the weekend - it's Saints again

 

My sporting highlight of the weekend? ….. Amazingly, it’s St Stithians related for the third week in a row. Lhuan-Dre Pretorius’ 153 runs, on debut, for the senior mens side against Zimbabwe.

He never matriculated at Saints – he left at the beginning of grade 12 to go into home schooling – but he was there from grades 8 to 11 and was already in the SA U9 team by then. He is a cricket wizard. I remember him as a schoolboy scoring runs as effortlessly as he did on Saturday; he kept wicket for the Central Gauteng Lions at his last Khaya Majola Week; and I watched him bowling left-arm spin once – and taking lots of wickets for very few runs.

I like, sometimes, when a new bright star appears on the horizon, to recall him or her playing as a schoolkid and wonder if we saw what was coming. Lhuan-Dre was a no-brainer.

Another ex-Saints boy announced himself on Saturday – Asenathi Ntlabakanye. He certainly made an impression as a schoolboy rugby player, I remember writing of his astonishing ability to play all 70 minutes of a game and finish as one of the strongest players on the field, despite his bulk. I never pegged him as a future Springbok back then, however, because he just didn’t fit the body mould. But we never imagined Rassie Erasmus and his ability to pick the right players, and his re-invention of the game. Seeing Asenathi in the first two scrums against the Barbarians was a sight to remember.

I was once taken to task for referring to St Stithians as our top cricketing nursery. It was pointed out to me that a school closer to the centre of town had actually won most of the games in their fixture that year. I do believe, however, that a measure of success for a school sports programme is the number of players who kick on and play at a higher level after school.

Consider that Ryan Rickleton and Kagiso Rabada have been rested for the current Test series, but there are still three Saints old boys in the team: Wiaan Mulder, Pretorius and Kwena Maphaka!