Khaya was school cricket's Craven

I’ve been at just about every Khaya Majola cricket week (under its present and former names) since 1989, as I have to all the rugby Craven Weeks in that time.

One of the things about the Craven Week, initially anyway, was that the spirit of Danie Craven loomed large around the place and his influence was seen in the way things were done, particularly when it came to the really important things – behaviour, sportsmanship and valuing how you play the game above the winning of it.

In 2001 the Coca-Cola Week was renamed the Khaya Majola Week, following Khaya Majola’s death the year before. Khaya’s history as a cricketer in the pre-unity days is well documented in the tournament brochure that is produced each year. He went on to play an important role in cricket’s unification process that began in 1991 and eventually he and Ali Bacher were the architects of a national development programme for the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB), the new national federation. He later became the Director of Development and then the Director of Amateur Cricket at the UCB.

During that time he became involved in the, then, Coca-Cola cricket week as a selector and generally a champion and advocate for the players in the development programme who were beginning to appear in the various teams.

Morgan Pillay, the long-serving tournament director of the week, was very close to Khaya and he gives a lot of credit for the way the tournament has evolved into what it is now to him. “He played a vital role in bringing everyone together, and he did it through the example he set and through the force of his personality,” he said.

“His vision for cricket was clear and he had the ability to get people to buy into it. His dream, he told us, was to see the day when a black South Africa bowler took five wickets in a Test match. Sadly, he died just three months before Makhaya Ntini’s 6/66 against New Zealand in Bloemfontein in November 2000 but I like to think he was smiling down on it.”

Most importantly, Khaya was as adamant that the right things happen on and around the field and, by all accounts, he deserves as much credit for the way things are run at the Khaya Majola Week as Danie Craven gets for the Craven Week.

“You should remember,” Pillay said, “that he was channelling talented black players into the week and many of them had no exposure to this level of cricket before. They never grew up with the etiquette and the traditions of the game and they had to be initiated into them. Khaya oversaw that process and he insisted on their compliance with it.

“That’s evident now. We rarely have incidents at the week and very few fingers are pointed, Khaya would approve.”

So, if anyone asks you who Khaya Majola was, tell them he was to school cricket what Danie Craven was to school rugby. He has left deep footprints around here.

The Khaya Majola Week is the beautiful face of SA Cricket

It’s been unseasonably cold and damp in the KZN Midlands the last two days, although some are saying it’s often that way up here over Christmas and that Town Hill is a merciful barrier between this part of the world at the heat and humidity of Durban and the coastal belt. It’s been dry enough to play cricket, though, and the three centuries and six five-wicket hauls notched up on day 1 of the Khaya Majola Week on Monday show that the 300-odd under-19 boys in action here this week are in the mood for it.

Whenever I’m at this tournament, I’m dumbstruck by the hordes of grown up people who have given up a week of their hard-earned leave - the week before Christmas, no less - to organise and run an event for 17 and 18 year-olds, with no remuneration. In fact in many cases it will be costing them money to be here.

The Khaya Majola Week is run with military precision. A local organising committee has been working all year on the arrangements and Morgan Pillay, the week's permanent secretary and the tournament director, will be keeping an eye on things, and using his charm and particular brand of emotional blackmail to get people to do extraordinary things beyond the call of why they got involved in the first place. 

Cricket South Africa’s manager of youth and amateur cricket Niels Momberg’s formidable presence is also always there, looming in the background, refusing to accept excuses, and not suffering fools gladly.

The upshot is that for the kids it’s a seamless week of fun in the sun. The fields are always immaculate, and alternatives miraculously appear if and when rain spoils the party; there are umpires; scorers; drinks and lunches and transportation to the many far-flung fields that a tournament of this scale requires.

The school fields that I was at on the first day, at Michaelhouse and Hilton, on Monday have to rate among the most beautiful I’ve seen, and I’ve seen most of them in this country. The distances between them are considerable, but they are linked by the scenic roads of the Midlands Meander, there are worse areas to be driving through.

And at the heart of it all are the teacher volunteers. They spend hours running the game at their own schools and then find more time to attend trials, select and prune squads, coach and manage teams through pre-tournament friendlies and then give up their holidays. Luckily, very few of them are unionised, Sadtu wouldn’t allow that sort of abuse of its members.

They make up the numbers in every rank of the organising structures: local committee, organisers, lunch ladies, umpires and hostel staff where the boys are staying.

And in the process, hangers-on like me are treated royally and, thanks to Morgan Pillay in particular, made to feel welcome and appreciated.

It’s what makes the Khaya Majola Week the envy of the other cricket-playing nations. If the ugly underbelly of South African cricket was exposed last week, this week it's turning its fairest face to the (somewhat watery) sunlight of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.

Day 1’s summarised scorecards:

KwaZulu-Natal Inland first innings 151 (Michael Booth 30, Nicholas Hatten 29; Merrick Brett 4/19, Zeeshan Ismail 2/27); Northerns first innings 174 (Jordan Hermann 115; Sanele Mbatha 3/19, Michael Booth 3/29, Michael Frost 3/57). Northerns won on first innings.

Eastern Province first innings 250/8 (James Mullins 95, Luke Beaufort 56, Nicholas Keevy 39; Nathan Jacobs 6/46); Boland first innings 157/9 (Johann Smal 68, Nathan Engelbrecht 37; Tiaan van Vuuren 3/18, Ethan Frosler 3/18). Match Drawn.

Free State first innings 200 (JP Coetzee 61, Ruan Cronjé 42, Michael Kershaw 28; Sebastian de Oliveira 3/22); Gauteng first innings 236/5 (Levert Manje 81*, Jack Lees 51, Nick Halstead-Cleak 30, Cameron Rowe 28); Free State second innings 34/2 (Marco de Kock 24*). Gauteng won on first innings.

Western Province first innings 231/7 (Daniel Smith 130, Lehan Botha 39; Joshua Stocks 2/28); KwaZulu-Natal first innings 136/3 (Francis Moran 51*, Thulani Chiliza 33, Cade Carmichael 30; Raees Carr 2/31). Match Drawn.

South Western Districts first innings 231/8 (Heath Richards 117, Jhedli van Briesies 51; Boitumelo Melesi 3/51, Elrich Cloete 3/87); Northern Cape first innings 154 (Orapeleng Mothlhoaring 64, Joshua Barends 40; Heath Richards 5/1). South Western Districts won on first innings.

Mpumalanga first innings 131 (Kyle Klesse 25; Leander Lubbe 5/27, Saahil Khan 2/15); Easterns first innings 148/8 (WP Myburgh 52*, Adriaan de Vries 45; Zuan Swart 2/14, Akhulile Makatu 2/17). Mpumalanga 8/0. Easterns won on first innings.

North West first innings 166 (Estiaan Schonfeldt 58, Francois Viviers 27; Stefan Bezuidenhout 5/28); Namibia first innings 154 (Ramon Wilmot 42, JC Balt 35; Karabelo Matlawe 4/39, Odirile Modikoane 3/25); North West second innings 39/0 (Paballo Sibande 18*). North West won on first innings.

Limpopo first innings 77 (Saba Mridha 31; Lilitha Reed 5/9, Nonelela Yikha 2/9); Border first innings 103 (Nonelela Yikha 49; Thomas Mayes 5/14, Tiaan Enslin 2/2, Ricardo Booysen 2/17); Limpopo second innings 70/5 (Nhlamulo Mboweni 22; Nqaba Peter 2/3); Border second innings 45/3 (Nonelela Yikha 17*; Gerhardus Fourie 2/4). Border won outright.

Overwhelming victories are for fascists, bullies and braggarts

I got drawn into a debate on Sunday around the massive scores being posted at the SA Schools water polo tournament currently under way in Joburg. Obviously, I don't believe there is a place for that sort of thing in school sport.

One team won 45-0, another 34-1. Both of those would translate, in rugby terms, to scores close to, or even over, 100-0.

I was about to go off on it again, but then I remembered I've already done that, so in the interests of saving electricity this load-shedding season, here's a link to what I wrote (in a rugby context) back in July 2018. Nothing's changed, you wouldn't expect that to have happened, it would require people growing a conscience and showing a little humanity, things that are in short supply when the rush of victory takes over.


http://theogarrun.blogspot.com/2018/07/100-point-wins-dont-do-anyone-any-good.html

10 of the best in 2019

School closes this week. The interprovincial tournaments for the summer sports begin next weekend, so it’s time to look back over the year and think of the players, teams and events that stood out.

It’s a purely self-indulgent exercise. I used to do it when I was still at the newspaper, and I decided to keep going here after I’d given that up. In those days, when I was travelling about a lot, watching schools sport, I used to limit my list to things that I had actually seen in person. That was useful because I could excuse the glaring omissions that would always occur by saying I wasn’t there.

I don’t have that luxury anymore, so all I can offer is that the following is purely objective. Yes it’s biased towards what I’m familiar with and of course you could easily come up with another 10 as worthy of inclusion if not more so.

It’s just a bit of nostalgia, without much worth.

In no particular order:

Let’s get the hardy perennials out of the way up front.

1 St Benedict’s won the boys trophy at the SA Schools Rowing champs at Roodeplaat for the 26^th year in a row in March. Someone will eventually stop them, logic dictates, just don’t ask me who that’s going to be.

2 Just as amazingly, Northcliff High School won the Joburg co-ed schools A league athletics interhigh inter-high Athletics for the 23^rd consecutive year. Again, they say that no team stays unbeaten forever. Apparently no-one has told the Northcliff athletes that.

3 Not in the same class, but starting to put a nice run together is the 1^st hockey team at Jeppe High School for Boys. They won the Aitken Trophy for the fifth year in a row. They were unbeaten for the second year in a row and ended as the top-ranked side in the land.

There were many great individual performances in the year. Here are a couple:

4 Bryce Parsons of King Edward was named the player of the Khaya Majola Week and the SA under-19 cricketer of the year. I don’t think that’s happened before. He also captained the under-19 national side and will probably lead them at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the new year.

5 Max Chaumeton’s remarkable school running career came to an end without him ever losing a 1500m race. The Parktown athlete came 28^th in the world at the junior cross-country champs and has represented the country on the track as well, He is clearly an Olympian in the making.

6 St Stithians won the Coke T20 Schools Challenge title for the fourth time. They beat St Charles in the final at Tuks in March.

7 Western Province’s dominance of schools rugby continued. Their Craven Week side thumped the Sharks in the main game of that week, and their B side were so impressive in the same week that there was talk at one stage of the two WP sides being matched in the final. Western Province also won the main games at the u-19 Academy Week and the under-16 Grant Khomo Week.

8 It was impossible not to enjoy watching the 2019 St John’s College rugby team play. They lost to Jeppe by a singe point and drew with King Edward and beat all their other local rivals. In the process they played as if they were really enjoying themselves. No conservative smashing the ball up and playing the phases for them. They gave the ball air and their outside backs scored the tries. It was a breath of fresh air.

9 The OJ Eagles water polo club, representing Central Gauteng, won the water polo national title (the Currie Cup, incidentally) for the fifth year in a row and the 14^th time in the last 19 years.

10 The St Stithians Girls College Water Polo team finished the year unbeaten, They were the top-ranked team and they won five major tournaments: St Anne’s; the Girls Schools Aquatic Champs; the Roedean Prestige Cup the Reef Cup and the St Peter’s tournament.