Alex’s Sipho Potsane is a Proteas cricketer in the making
The Alex KFC Mini-Cricket coaching clinics are now paying dividends as the township now has a prospective Protea by the name of Sipho Potsane (16) playing on the SA U19 side.
Alexandra Hub cricket coach Dan Phaka has lauded the Alex KFC Mini-Cricket development programme and said it was on the right track to producing outstanding township cricketers of the future.
Speaking to Alex News in an interview at the Alexandra Cricket Oval in the East Bank section of the township on August 26, Phaka also heaped praises on the more than 140 learners and their teachers who braved the unexpectedly chilly weather to enjoy an early morning cricket coaching clinic.
“If the unpredictable weather had not been nasty to us this morning, I am sure we would have bursting at the seams with enthusiastic children eager to learn a thing or two.” Phaka who also pointed out that cricket activities in the township were played under the banner of the Gauteng Lions Cricket Club.
Phaka said the cricket mother body, Cricket South Africa, had mandated the Alex Hub to host a minimum of two cricket development clinics per season but this time as the hub, they would like to go a step further and host three sessions this year.
“This is our second clinic of this year as we held another in early May before the onset of winter and a good number of the children who come from schools in the township and others from areas of what is now commonly known as greater Alexandra attended,” Phaka said.
Greater Alexandra included areas such as Bramley, Kew, Lombardy East and West, Lyndhurst, Marlboro, Rembrandt Park, Glenhazel, and Sandringham. “I am so excited that our programme is now bearing fruits in producing future cricketers who will take over from our outstanding female cricketer Ntozakhe Raisibe.”
Well-known cricketing schools such as St Davids, St John’s, Jeppe High School for Boys, Queens, St Sitithians, and KES often scout promising cricketers and offer them bursaries to study at their schools while at the same time nurturing their cricket talent.
Phaka singled out Sipho Potsane, a 16-year-old Grade 10 boy who was snapped by Jeep Boys High School and now plays for the SA U19 team and has just returned from an overseas tour with the team to Sri Lanka. “Sipho is one of our brightest cricketing prospects to come from the township and we are sure, if all goes well, he will soon make it to the Proteas.
“We also have three boys that were scouted by St Davids Inanda and four Grade 8 girls, Karabo Matlaila, Hlekani Chesani, Tshepi Choma and Thando Makhura, who were taken by Queens High School and they currently play in the Joburg East Ladies Team coached by Martin Rathogwa,” Phaka said.
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