KFC Mini-Cricket community festivals will be staged in various provinces
To continue from a record-breaking 2022, Actonville Spurs Cricket Club in Benoni hosted their KFC Mini-Cricket community festival, which took place on Thursday, March 2, with 300 kids attending.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) in partnership with KFC will journey back to the grassroots level and bring the 2023 KFC Mini-Cricket to local communities around the country.
The KFC Mini-Cricket community festivals will be staged in the 16 provinces over the next few months enticing children between the ages of 3-12 to play the game in a fun and friendly way, in the continued call to level the playing field and provide opportunities for all who want to play the game.
In 2022, the CSA Mini-Cricket celebrated 40 years of its existence with a mega-festival that broke the programme’s records with attendance and the number of matches played on the day.
To continue from a record-breaking 2022, Actonville Spurs Cricket Club in Benoni hosted their KFC Mini-Cricket community festival, which took place on Thursday, March 2, with 300 kids attending.
CSA’s Mass Participation Manager, David Mokopanele, said; “KFC Mini-Cricket prides itself on being one of South Africa’s premier development programmes, with an impact that goes beyond the cricket field. Over the years the programme has unearthed household professional cricketers and administrators as well as developed astute citizens and ardent cricket fans.
“This year, instead of utilising the main provincial stadia, the festivals will move back to grassroots to community fields with hopes that we reach every child in the country and provide them with the opportunity to play the sport. We want to elongate our story 40 years on and celebrate the programme whilst we continue to build the stars of tomorrow.”
Cricket hype is currently at an all-time high in South Africa and it is now time for our kids to shine, believes Andra Nel, KFC Marketing Manager Brand and Purpose, said: “Our kids have been watching first-class cricket at its best over the past month, and the KFC Mini-Cricket Community Festivals allow the professionals and selectors a platform to glance into the future.
“Our community festivals are unique in that the playing field is levelled and our children can play together no matter where they come, and they get a chance to cast aside any challenges they might be facing.
“We are proud to be a partner in cricket that affords our youth with an opportunity to play the game they love and gives them a chance to dream and achieve goals.”
Easterns wicketkeeper and batsman, Lerato Langa, attended the Actionville KFC Mini-Cricket community festival and brought along players from Benoni Primary, where she is the sports coach: “I am currently studying and coaching KFC Mini-Cricket in the afternoons I cannot stress enough the importance of the programme and its ability to build social cohesion, and how it provides a platform where kids are encouraged to be the best version of themselves. Further, it teaches important life skills, particularly discipline. Kids need to think and strategise on how to bowl the next ball, where to hit the ball next, where the fielders are positioned and to hit that ball.”
Tournament coordinator, Julius Maziya, is a product of Mini-Cricket: “Mini-Cricket changed my life in ways I never thought, and now I get to work every day in the sport that I love. KFC Mini-Cricket allows our children to be themselves and the freedom to just be kids.
“Most schools that we work with are based in various townships around our area and we use the platform to teach important life skills and encourage them to dream big as these are our future community leaders.”
