WATCH: Young saints excel in international cricket.

St Stithians Boys’ College is fast becoming one of the best cricketing schools in the country.

Wandile Makwetu and Wiaan Mulder, pupils of St Stithians, have been selected in the 16-man Coca-Cola South Africa U19 squad to tour Sri Lanka.

The tour, held from 25 June to 13 July, will see the squad play two youth tests as well as three One-Day Internationals. The side will see some exciting changes as 14 players make their debut on the cricket scene.

The two rising cricket stars have been in fine form this season having led their school to the Coca-Cola T20 Schools Challenge Championship in March. After beating Paarl Gymnasium by 13 runs in the last round-robin match of the tournament, St Stithians met them again in the final. They posted 152/3 after 20 overs and restricted Paarl to 144/8 to take the title by eight runs.

Makwetu and Mulder shared a 138-run partnership setting up a thrilling victory for St Stithians.

Mulder was named as the captain of the team and the two were also part of the SA U19 team which took part in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in Bangladesh earlier this year. “I know a lot of people say this, but this is a dream come true,” Mulder said when speaking about his new title as captain.

“I’m really excited and feel extremely privileged to be selected for the team firstly, and secondly, to be given the job of captaining the team. I don’t take this opportunity lightly and I’m excited to get to Sri Lanka and play good cricket.”

WATCH: SA U19 captain Wiaan Mulder in an exclusive interview with Sandton Chronicle.

Following a tough World Cup, Mulder hopes to use that experience to help the team perform better in the sub-continent conditions. “We learned a lot of things in Bangladesh, it was a tough tour, but that’s gone and we have new and exciting challenges ahead of us. Playing test cricket at this age is a huge privilege, even if it is the four-day version, and I want to take this team forward and leave the game in a better place than I found it,” Mulder concluded.

On being selected for the second time in the squad and now being one of the most experienced players, Makwetu is keen to take his lessons learnt and share them with the new players. “To go and represent my country again, it’s a very special feeling for me,” he said.

“To be exposed to international conditions will definitely make me a better player. I am hoping to learn a lot and, hopefully, we can produce some results there as well.”