Cricket brings excitement to youth
HYDE PARK/ROSEBANK/DIEPSLOOT/HILLBROW – The Australian cricket team gave Afrika Tikkun youth a cricket lesson and were astounded by the young talent in our country.
On 24 September, the Australian cricket team treated Afrika Tikkun, a Hyde Park-based organisation aimed at uplifting and educating the youth, to the game of cricket.
The team’s spokesperson, Catherine van Schoor said, “The Australian Cricket Team [who are] in South Africa… took on a different kind of challenge on Saturday [for] their #cricketcares cricket clinic with youth from Afrika Tikkun’s four centres in Johannesburg.
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“Youth from Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Hillbrow… and Diepsloot came to The Wanderers [in Illovo] to learn cricket from some of the best in the game.” She added that, although none of the young people had been exposed to the game before, their raw talent and enthusiasm helped them shine.
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“One young man from Diepsloot, in particular, was singled out by George Bailey [Australian cricketer] who said, ‘we just couldn’t knock him out’. Later the cricketers half joked, half boasted that they may have found the next generation of Proteas in some of the players on the field that morning.”
Van Schoor highlighted that the Australian cricket team made a ‘sizeable donation’ of cricket sets that would be shared across the Afrika Tikkun Centres. “This will enable the spark that was lit on Saturday to grow, and young people in those townships will be able to start playing cricket as a sport.”
Van Schoor said that Afrika Tikkun places emphasis on sport. “Afrika Tikkun has been cultivating sports talent in soccer, netball and triathlon [running, cycling and swimming] for some years now, with some exceptional talent passing through its fields.”
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She proudly explained that on the same day that the cricket team were mentoring the next generation of cricketers, triathletes from Afrika Tikkun were competing in the London Carglass Triathlon. “They were setting some of the best times in their age categories.”
To Van Schoor’s mind, the #cricketcares initiative is one that should be supported and celebrated because of its positive impact on the youth. “#Cricketcares is not just good deeds, it’s also good sense [because it exposes] children from townships and under-privileged circumstances to a sport that has traditionally seemed to be exclusive to the privileged of our society.”
She concluded that talent is everywhere and believes that some of the most exciting talent can be found in South African townships.
