Easterns pursue mini cricket excellence

The seminar was aimed at coaches and teachers who are registered with the KFC Mini Cricket programme and focused on this year’s theme: “In pursuit of excellence.”

Israel Hlengani took over the reigns as Easterns’ KFC Mini Cricket Administrator from Berrelyn Platt w,ho has served in the position for 18 years.

Platt has been a mainstay and stalwart of the development programme in the region and has helped it grow from strength to strength.

She encouraged all the delegates from the region to support Hlengani, as they did with her.

KFC Mini Cricket is the most successful development sports programme in the world, evident by the fact that the head sponsor, KFC, has extended its contract with Cricket South Africa (CSA) for another 10 years.

In its fifth year of sponsoring the programme, the company has invested R25-million into it that has seen a 32 per cent growth in the number of children taking part in mini cricket, as well as a 43 per cent growth rate in the number of coaches involved and a 53 per cent increase in the number of new schools participating in it.

According to CSA’s Eddie Khoza, the advantages of playing mini cricket is that it can be played on any reasonable level surface, its low cost, it eliminates boredom among young people and helps to eliminate the fear of facing the harder cricket ball.

Its main objectives are to introduce the game to boys and girls in a fun manner, popularise the sport and make it accessible to all, ensure that children are kept active and produce players who will contribute positively to the CSA pipeline.

“Through KFC Mini Cricket we want to create an association to cricket for life,” Khoza said.

To find out more about the programme and about getting your school involved, contact Hlengani on 011 746 9000.