With summer setting in nicely Friday was the perfect Cape Town day for Street Cricket. The league which is now in its 3rd week is proving to be the highlight of the week in each community with parents, uncles, aunties, grandparents, etc, all coming out to watch these young cricket players compete for the Street Cricket league trophy. With the regions being so spread out I managed to get to Elsies River and Nyanga on Friday. I started off in Elsies River by Avonwood sports complex were the teams compete amongst the court yards hitting the balls high into the flats where their loyal supporters sit and watch. The competition in Elsies is fierce and all the children are playing hard to get into their regional finals.
After Elsies I headed to the township of Nyanga where the talent was in abundance as their coaches have insisted on extra training for their teams once a week. Nyanga Street Cricket is coordinated by the passionate Mxo Tywaku who has organized a fantastic league with they help from his dedicated coaches. Nyanga are playing hard to keep the Street Cricket Trophy which they won convincingly last year. With new young talent that is coming through I reckon they will field a great team in the finals in Langa.
I have received great feedback from all coordinators in each region. Cyril Pelston the coordinator in Manenberg informed me” After three weeks of street cricket matches, there is so much excitement in the Manenberg community. Street cricket has become part of the culture of our community and helps to add value and growth in communities”.
I wish all the teams luck for the upcoming week and look forward to some more Street Cricket this Friday.