Looking for young Bakerton cricket players

Himmat Parbhoo, chairman of the club says they are trying to get more children involved in the sport.

“The goal is to try and get the children to be more active and get them away from the Xbox and PlayStation, so they can keep busy and stay away from drugs and gangs,” he says.

The club started in 1994 with one team.

Himmat says the club is closely affiliated with Easterns Cricket, which helps grow the children from strength to strength.

“We aim to have the necessary facilities to practice at the schools in Bakerton, but we need to get the schools involved in order to do that,” he says.

The club currently has four senior teams and two junior teams, U/8 and U/12, and the club is looking to expand.

“It is a really fun-filled way of practising and coaching, and by the end of July we plan to start training,” says Himmat.

The junior level has players ranging in ages from seven to 14 years, with the senior level for players aged 15 years and older.

“Although we strive for all these things, we are limited in facilities and dependent on local council to provide facilities,” says Himmat.

He adds that it is a very disheartening issue as they tried getting in touch with local sport clubs, but are confronted with many obstacles.

Himmat says they want to play in Bakerton because this is where the children live, and they want to keep it local.

The Bakerton Stadium cannot be used as practice grounds.

Ward councillor for the area, Ramesh Sheodin, says that shortly after the municipality spent R250 000 renovating the stadium, it was vandalised, and the stands and roof were removed, and the toilets were destroyed.

“It is now an ugly sight,” he says.

Ekurhuleni is aware of the state of the stadium and are going to first enclose the stadium, and thereafter begin the repairs.

Ramesh could not confirm when this will happen.