Growth for grassroots cricket

The KFC Mini-Cricket programme is the country’s much-loved and largest national grassroots development initiative.
In a virtual provincial seminar on 22 October, Lions CEO Jono Leaf-Wright and Central Gauteng Lions (CGL) cricket services manager Reuben Mandlazi among others, shared their plan to get the season started in early January.

“I’ve seen and looked at other grassroots programmes around the world and this one is by far the leader of the industry with regards to what they do for grassroots cricket, not only in the CGL province but around the country,” said Leaf-Wright.

With 126 000 players, 6 600 schools and 13 000 coaches, it’s unparalleled to any grassroots programme in the world, he added.

“One thing that is certain here is that a child always smiles and with this programme, it creates hope and gives children the opportunity to dream. It allows every young player that enters the pipeline of SA cricket to dream big that maybe one day they will be the next Makhaya Ntini or Shaun Pollock.”

Mandlazi said the main vision for the programme for the next few months would be that of growth.

“Our programmes resume officially from January to April. When I sat down with Bryan Patel from KFC Mini Cricket, we looked at where we are now and took stock of what we are trying to achieve and one big thing was growth,” added Mandlazi.

He said he wanted to see the programme grow in leaps and bounds and spread the game as far as possible.

With the major Covid-19 challenges, CGL realised that the KFC-Mini Cricket programme played a pivotal role in the pipeline system.

“Without this foundation phase we will not be able to produce the stars that you will one day see playing at the Bullring [The Imperial Wanderers Stadium]. We need to shift the focus to ensure that matches are played and we want to share the message that even through these Covid challenges, we know that we are focusing on opportunities rather than threats.”

Thanking everyone involved, Mandlazi said the coaches especially at the grassroots level, were much appreciated for their quality coaching.

“Our aim is to make sure we play the right brand of cricket, high quality cricket. We can only do that with much attention to detail as far as coaching is concerned. Every kid has talent and we just want to make sure we harness their skills by ensuring we teach quality cricket.”