Young cricketers get their kit on
ILM-SA and a donor are helping young KZN cricketers get a start in the sport.
MORE than 70 young developmental cricketers were thrilled to receive new cricket kits through the combined efforts of the Institute for Learning and Motivation – South Africa (ILM-SA) and an anonymous donor at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Thursday.
The 71 children belonging to the KZNCU Township and Rural Development Programme received a full cricket kit each which, according to Fatima Asmal, the founder of ILM-SA and one of its trustees, said had been made possible by an anonymous donor.
“We had shown the donor videos of children in the programme sharing cricket equipment – including helmets – which moved him tremendously. Being a cricket lover himself, he decided that he would like each child to receive a kit of his/her own,” she said.
Each young cricketer received a helmet, pads, gloves, an abdo guard, a bat, cricket shoes and a kit bag.
Asmal added that Kookaburra had chipped in by discounting prices substantially and donating bats for the junior age divisions.
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“The remainder of the equipment valued at approximately R200 000, was made possible by the anonymous donor.”
The manager of the KZNCU Township and Rural Development Programme, Sanelisiwe Kuzwayo, said that the gesture had rendered her speechless.
“The programme caters for 9000 children and involves 48 townships, 11 supervisors and 52 coaches – it is not possible for us to provide cricketing equipment for individual children. This will mean so much to the children who are receiving them – it will motivate them in their cricket,” said Kuzwayo.
She said that the kits would be given to U11, U13, U14, U15 and U16 cricketers who constitute the elite high performance component of the programme.
Kuzwayo said that she hoped that other individuals and businesses would be inspired to support the programme.
“For example donors could get involved in erecting nets in some of the areas we work in, which have no cricketing facilities to speak of.”
ILM-SA volunteers also banded together to make it possible for 14 coaches belonging to the programme to receive a kit bag filled with toiletries, groceries and other gifts.
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