Busy pre-season for home-based Dolphins stars

AS the upcoming 2018/19 cricket season approaches, the Hollywoodbets Dolphins continue their preparations with a number of their stars overseas on various national tours or playing cricket in other parts of the world.

There are an unprecedented number of Dolphins cricketers involved in Protea, SA ‘A’ and SA Emerging squads with only seven players back home at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium honing their skills for the approaching season.

Dolphins head coach Grant Morgan is currently assisting Russell Domingo in India with the SA ‘A’ team so his assistant at the Dolphins, Imraan Khan, has been putting his handful of charges through their paces back home.

“In the first month of the pre-season we just focused on getting the guys as fit as possible as well as getting the SA ‘A’ guys as well prepared as possible for their tour. With just a few guys left behind we have also been working hard on individual skills. Getting the guys hitting balls and bowling as well as a lot of focus on fielding – it has been a good pre-season so far,” Khan said.

Despite having just seven players at his disposal for the meantime Khan has been impressed by the attitude that the players have shown with a month and a half to go until the start of the new season.

“It has been quite easy to work with this small group of guys because the intensity has been great and the guys have been working hard and trying to improve,” he said.

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With the majority of the contracted players getting back in the next two weeks the focus will then shift to the upcoming Sunfoil Series campaign that kicks off in the final week of September.

“We had a good season last campaign but we feel that a lot of our improvement needs to come in red ball cricket,” Khan stressed. “Our four day campaign was the most disappointing tournament for us and we want to hit the ground running at the start of this season.”

Having shared a trophy and made a final last season, the Dolphins achieved something that they hadn’t done in previous seasons however Khan believes there is a lot more to come from a quality group of cricketers.

“Our white ball cricket was good but there is obviously room for improvement from us.”

The Dolphins have Keshav Maharaj, David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo involved with the Proteas in Sri Lanka. Khaya Zondo, Sarel Erwee, Senuran Muthusamy and Rob Frylinck are in the SA ‘A’ squad in India while Eathan Bosch, Smangaliso Nhlebela and Kerwin Mungroo are involved with the SA Emerging squad in Sri Lanka.

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