South Africa Under-19 Head Coach Shukri Conrad says he is extremely excited by the talent he has available to him after watching some of those players first-hand over the last few weeks.
In the final few days of October, two Cricket South Africa (CSA) Under-19 Talent Acceleration Programme (TAP) camps were held in Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.
The purpose of the camps were to upskill those who attended, to work on further identifying their strengths and also to help improve them.
A total of 44 players were put through their paces, half of those from the inland regions – the Momentum Multiply Titans, the Imperial Lions and VKB Knights – at the Powerade Centre of Excellence in Pretoria and the other half from the Warriors, Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras and the Hollywoodbets Dolphins at St George’s Park.
“We had two really good camps,” Conrad reported. “We manged to get through a lot of the skill sets. We obviously worked on their fitness training and testing.
“I was really happy with the levels at which they arrived there. Prior to them coming they received training programs as per the protocols and they followed them.
“I am really excited by the talent that we have on offer, in every department I must add. The work we managed to get through as well was extremely satisfying.”
The youngsters got to work with CSA consultants like Neil McKenzie, Malibongwe Maketa, Paul Adams, Rory Kleinveldt and Kruger van Wyk during the two camps, which lasted between three and four days.
“We have some really high-class consultants at CSA and the players enjoyed working with them,” Conrad said. “And along with these guys, we were really able to firstly have a really good look at the talent we have at our disposal and then secondly impart the necessary knowledge to them.
“Because as I said, these camps were not only there to give me an idea of which players we have leading up to a World Cup in two years’ time but also to impart the necessary knowledge to coach these guys and leave them with something.
“So I was really happy with what we managed to get through in those four days.”
Conrad and his team were using the camps as one of the early steps looking towards the 2022 ICC U19 World Cup that will be hosted by the West Indies.
Despite only a select group attending these initial camps, the South Africa coach reiterated that the door was not closed on anyone.
“It’s not a closed shop as I mentioned before,” he stated. “It’s two years and boys develop differently, but this is a really good starting point for us.
“We can start identifying some roles for the guys, that might mean interacting with their school coaches, their private coaches and in in some instances the senior provincial coaches in their various areas. So all-in-all a very worthwhile exercise.”
The next step for the TAP camps will be some middle practice in the form of a series of games between the players who attended the camps.
“We’ll hope to have an inland squad play against a coastal squad, early in December in the form of three one-day games and that will just be part of the process for the next couple of years,” Conrad added.
Name of Author: Cricket South Africa
Cricket South Africa (CSA) governs cricket in South Africa. Formed in 2002, it succeeded the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB) and became the sole governing body in 2008. CSA oversees all levels of cricket, including national teams for men and women, and is a full ICC member and SASCOC affiliate.
