As Marks Park Cricket Club’s season comes to an end, club chairman Mahmood Takolia, spoke about the club’s successes and future goals.
The club managed to close off the 2017/18 season with home wins for the club’s Premier and President’s league teams.
The Premier League team beat Wanderers Cricket Club after posting a score of 190/9 in their 50 overs with Yasser Cook scoring 52 runs.
The Presidents League team beat Randburg by six wickets.
Takolia said in the past season, the club gave talented youngsters opportunities to play senior cricket and they held their own against much more experienced and stronger opposition.
“The club used this season and will again use next season as a building block for senior teams to become strong cricketing units for the Gauteng Cricket Board leagues,” he added. “The club’s objective is to be sustainable and consistently competitive and to give opportunities to as many cricketers as possible to enjoy the game. We want talented cricketers to ultimately play representative cricket.”
The highlights of the season:
The Premier League team finished the season eighth on the log. Cook and Karan Muggan both managed to score more than 450 runs and each hit a century.
The top bowlers for the season were Yasser Ditta, finishing the season with 33 wickets at a 27,7 strike rate, and Ziad Saloojee, with 30 wickets at a strike rate of 19,2.
The club’s Sunday One, Sunday Three and Sunday Eight teams finished their respective leagues in the top five.
Takolia said many youngsters showed resolve in the leagues. In the Sunday Two league, Hishaam Manack and Uwais Adam, both 15 years old, were the top wicket-takers taking 16 wickets each for the season.
The Saturday One league team and defending champions finished second, the Saturday Three team won the league and the Saturday Five team finished third in the league.
Takolia said the club’s junior section continued to grow and this year the club had more than 150 juniors playing in the U7, U9, U11, U13 and U15 leagues. The club has also partnered with Future Sports Academy to run a girls cricket programme.
The club intends to run a full women’s programme from junior to senior level.
Details: Marks Park Cricket Club, info@marksparkcricket.co.za.
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