Honey, I am home!

Was thinking of writing this item a while back and with another manager mentioning that he has his last home-grown player, at age 36, got this going.
I think it is easier to imagine the situation with a new team. Now in the newby board, there is loads of people giving advice to new and old managers alike.
From how to train, who to train and which poor home-grown player to send packing first.

So firstly. You should pull a 0 ITS player every week as it will cost you nothing and you never know what will climb out of the woodwork. The maximum ITS’s you can save is 100 and to get to this you will need to invest £20000/week to receive 10 ITS’s for that week. Now you asking – how many can i use on a player. 35 can be used on a 17y youth pull if your academy is at superb conditions. Now please! It is a random die roll and you are not garenteed to get a respectable+ player.

12 ITS on a primary is the maximum, so pick at least 1 of batting and bowling, Make sure to spend the remaining ITS sensibly too(on the corresponding secondary). Then the rest can put on stamina and fielding or WK, but that is up to you.
12 ITS will guarantee you mediocre skill.

With the click of a button you pull your 17y and setting the target level to reach is of course an interesting debate in itself.
Depending on the skills of the player and if you want him to go to U19’s or just slow training is all up to the manager. Some great pulls will get from 5-10 nets on them, where some will only get 3!

Concentration and Consistency take a long time to train in this game, particularly for youngsters as the speed of training is adversely weighted against them since young lads have a tendency to not listen and/or apply themselves to the mental side of the game as they should. The theory being that these are signs of maturity and hence more mature players will appreciate and learn these skills more readily. Primary (Bowling & Batting) Skills take about 10 or 11 weeks to train for a 17yr old using one net, 6 or 7 using two nets, 5 weeks with 3 nets. Stamina 6 weeks with one net and players of all ages improve at the same rate. Wicket Keeping takes around 7 weeks for a 17yr old to train and fielding takes 6 weeks with one net session. Given that you get conc/cons bonuses from fielding it’s a cheap and cheerful stat to increase!

Whatever your chosen training path is, train one or two superstars or 3 or 4 players. Soon it will be evident that your superstar is about 30 yrs old and you start the process all over again.

Now i have not gone and searched the whole BT, of teams that are all 100% (or close) home-grown teams.

I hope that somebody reading this finds some new motivation to develop his/her team further and takes on the challenge to see if home-grown success is possible to achieve.

Battrick: NT’s first Test match.

West Indies v South Africa (3992923)

Date: 06/07/2009 at 15:30
Ground: Kensington Oval

We are going to play the West Indies in our first ever test match this next monday. It will be something new and I have not much of an idea what to expect from the match. The first ideas for a lineup are already floating around and some players are for sure not going to play, was stated by manager sunrider

[b][u]Day 1[/u] – Morning Session[/b]

A crowd of xxx turned up at Kensington Oval stadium for the Historic inaugural BT NT Test Match.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat on a cracked pitch.

Arnold opened the bowling with Hale, who with great bowling kept the runrate to a minimum.

Long’s first ball was driven to the boundary for a 4, but his spin bowling was just too much, beating Julian and claiming the first WI wicket in the same over! Keil was supporting from the other end on his debut.

[b]The players are off the field for lunch.[/b]

Over 35. West Indies: 79-1, runrate=2.26

Wickets -

Julian b. Long 20 (FOW: 38/1)

[b]SQUADS:[/b]

[u]SA:[/u]

James, Jenny, Delap, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Lampard, Long, Keil, Arnold, Hale, Mercer

[u]WI:[/u]

Julian, Hooper, Seargeant, Dancy, East, Maynard, Naykutse, Farquharson, Gillan, Deane, Roberts

[b][u]Day 1[/u] – Afternoon Session[/b]

So far only taken 1 wicket, SA came back on the field wanting more! The runrate was nice and low, but was not goign to help us if we do not take any wickets…

Veteran Spinner Mercer was brought into the attack to try break the partnership after lunch. However it was not to happen. The batsman slowly pondered along with SA doing all they could to get a wicket. Long was brought back into the attack and with his third over this spell got the much awaited wicket of Hooper who went back to the pavilion for 74 off 179 balls. Seargent however did not stay in long, and Long sent him packing as well for 47 off 113 balls.

Keil hungry for a debut wicket got the wicket of East who was looking to be dangerous before tea.

[b]The players are off the field for tea.[/b]

Over 70. West Indies: 195-4, runrate=2.79

Wickets -

Hooper c. Delap b. Long 74 (FOW: 145/2)

Seargeant lbw b. Long 47 (FOW: 146/3)

East b. Keil 16 (FOW: 171/4)

[b][u]Day 1[/u] – Evening Session[/b]

With the final 40 overs to be bowled, South Africa will be hoping to get wickets and capatilise before the end of play on Day 1.

Arnold got the breakthrough giving a sitter for James at midwicket.

Last few overs WI started to push the runrate as our bowlers were showing fatique.

Long has been exceptional, or is it elite , today with 5 out of the 7 wickets. What a great match he is having!

Wickets -

Maynard c. James b. Arnold 14 (FOW: 199/5)

Naykutse c. Lampard b. Long 34 (FOW: 280/6)

Day 1 – Morning Session

A crowd of 2908 turned up at Kensington Oval stadium for the Historic inaugural BT NT Test Match.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat on a cracked pitch.

Arnold opened the bowling with Hale, who with great bowling kept the runrate to a minimum.
Long’s first ball was driven to the boundary for a 4, but his spin bowling was just too much, beating Julian and claiming the first WI wicket in the same over! Keil was supporting from the other end on his debut.

The players are off the field for lunch.

Over 35. West Indies: 79-1, runrate=2.26

Wickets -
Julian b. Long 20 (FOW: 38/1)

SQUADS:
SA:
James, Jenny, Delap, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Lampard, Long, Keil, Arnold, Hale, Mercer

WI:
Julian, Hooper, Seargeant, Dancy, East, Maynard, Naykutse, Farquharson, Gillan, Deane, Roberts

Day 1 - Afternoon Session

So far only taken 1 wicket, SA came back on the field wanting more! The runrate was nice and low, but was not goign to help us if we do not take any wickets…

Veteran Spinner Mercer was brought into the attack to try break the partnership after lunch. However it was not to happen. The batsman slowly pondered along with SA doing all they could to get a wicket. Long was brought back into the attack and with his third over this spell got the much awaited wicket of Hooper who went back to the pavilion for 74 off 179 balls. Seargent however did not stay in long, and Long sent him packing as well for 47 off 113 balls.

Keil hungry for a debut wicket got the wicket of East who was looking to be dangerous before tea.

The players are off the field for tea.

Over 70. West Indies: 195-4, runrate=2.79

Wickets -
Hooper c. Delap b. Long 74 (FOW: 145/2)
Seargeant lbw b. Long 47 (FOW: 146/3)
East b. Keil 16 (FOW: 171/4)

Day 1 – Evening Session

With the final 40 overs to be bowled, South Africa will be hoping to get wickets and capatilise before the end of play on Day 1.

Arnold got the breakthrough giving a sitter for James at midwicket.
Last few overs WI started to push the runrate as our bowlers were showing fatique.

Long has been exceptional, or is it elite , today with 7 out of the 10 wickets. What a great match he is having!

The players are off the field for the change of innings.

Over 107. West Indies: 311-10, runrate=2.91

Long 24-6-58-7

Wickets -

Maynard c. James b. Arnold 14 (FOW: 199/5)

Naykutse c. Lampard b. Long 34 (FOW: 280/6)

Farquharson b. Long 4 (FOW: 298/7)

Dancy lbw b. Keil 84 (FOW: 310/8)

Deane c. Kelly b. Long 0 (FOW: 311/9)

Roberts b. Long 0 (FOW: 311/10)

3 Overs left of day 1, all SA needed to do is keep wickets, and build partnerships tomorrow.

James and Jenny opened the batting for us and will continue in the morning.

Great day of test match cricket!

*Interesting facts about today’s game:*

Both captains opened the batting for their teams.

SA only gave away 12 extras in their 107 overs.

WI already has given 5 in 3 overs.

zero sixes has been scored

31 fours were hit.

BT U19 WC Final

In an historical event in BT, today’s final marks the first time that both India and West Indies have each made it to the end match, and for India, this was their first final of any World Cup.

Matches between these two teams have always been close, even going to the last ball to decide the winner. Over the last two seasons however, West Indies have an advantage of 2-1 over India.

India won the toss in the final on a dusty pitch at Cherry boiz CG and chose to bowl. West Indies lost Clamp and Cherubin early but then Day and Ramnarais put on 65 for the third wicket. With two quick wickets, India were looking good on the field, but it was the 5th wicket partnership between Ramnarais and Warrican that gave the innings some impetus. Ramnarais was the feature of the innings with excellent running between the wickets. West Indies went on to make a very good total of 257 for 5.

In reply India’s openers, Kanojiya and Sivaprasad put on 115 before India saw wickets tumble before them. Great bowling from the West Indies bowlers kept India at bay, forcing the batsmen to take chances. The target was just too much and De Groot finished off the tail, bowling out India for 197 in 45 overs. De Groot and Thorp both took 3 wickets to end a well paced victory for West Indies.

Congratulations to West Indies and their manager Windies.
*Season 12 Under 19 World Cup Winners*

U19 World Cup Semi-Finals Report

This World Cup has continued the run of amazing matches and the semi-finals certainly did nothing to let the fans down. After two gripping matches, we now have our finalists. 

 

In the first semi-final, undefeated Pakistan took on India. After losing the toss and being sent in to bat, the openers struggled to find their feet and soon Pakistan found themselves at 85/4. Ishaq came in to steady the ship and set a very solid platform for Pakistan to reach 246 from their 50 overs. India came out to bat with an early wicket giving Pakistan hope. Kanojiya and Bokhle set up a great partnership to stay on top and reach the target with 2 wickets remaining. India brought Pakistan’s unbeaten run to an abrupt end, although a few extra runs and it could have gone the other way. 

In the second game, Australia lost the toss and the West Indies had no hesitation in sending them into bat. Three quick wickets saw Australia in dire straights. Moloto and Everton tried their best to salvage the cause but West Indies kept up the pressure by taking a steady stream of wickets. All Rounder Harley had the difficult task of trying keep the strike and get a decent total to defend for Australia.
West Indies came out to bat, knowing a win was possible against this total and despite a very early wicket, looked on track to chase down the total. Clamp and Cherubin chased hard building a huge 3rd wicket partnership to help West Indies send Australia packing. Manager Windies. was elated in stopping Butters in his tracks and miss out on a Wold Cup glory.

That leaves India taking on West Indies in the Under 19 World Cup Final, whileAustralia face Pakistan for 3rd spot.

Season 12 Under 19 World Cup

The final stages of the U19 World Cup for Season 12 is commencing tomorrow in the host country Sri Lanka. This season saw a change to previous formats, with no Group stages, but rather a straight knock-out to the Semi’s, despite some gatherings of protesters outside BT headquarters to rectify this decision. Regardless of the format, current holders Pakistan, still on an unbeaten run, will try their best to defend their title. 

he local groundsmen also tried to remonstrate their disapointment and put up an initial strike, but this was soon ended with some gentle persuasion by their chief groundsman and union rep and the dusty pitches have now been prepared.

In the first of the semi-finals, undefeated Pakistan, led by Altamash, will be taking onMegastar’s India who only won 3 games and narrowly made it into the match.

The second semi-final match sees Butters, in his second campaign for Australia, try and beat Windies.‘ West Indies side for the second time this season and get into the final.

The 5^th vs 6^th play-off is a clash of the southern hemisphere between scienide’sSouth Africa, and New Zealand with their recently appointed manager Shockwave.

Fighting to avoid last place in the 7^th vs 8^th play-off, England take on hosts Sri Lanka. Freaky may have set orders for England, but Sri Lanka fans are wondering if their manager whambo will be around to set theirs.

Can Pakistan be the first to make it two in a row? Will they be stopped?

Tune in to BT at 05:30 BT time on May 26^th to find out!

Battrick: SA U19 vs Eng U19

Today the South African Cricket Board Manager, Scienide unveiled the revamp itinerary at Newlands Cricket Grounds for the upcoming match against England.

Welcome to Super Sport and we have got news about the telecasting rights for the upcoming match and we are happy to announce that we, Super Sport have won the telecasting rights for the England-South Africa match. The match will be shown live on the 04th of May 2009 at 10:30 BT time.

Team Announcement 

South African’s land in England

Welcome back to Super Sport and we are bringing you the details of the squad which arrived in England this morning. After a long break the selection of the South African team was done for the match next week. The 15 member squad is still under a selection process by the selecting committee and open to discussion on the SAFE and offsite forum. Players will be chosen on the merits of their recent performances in International and Domestic level.

“This is going to be a very tough and challenging match. Its going to be difficult to beat England but not impossible as we know that they can be beaten and we saw it against the Indians. We are confident on our abilities and we will give our best shot.” Both the coach and skipper expressed their confidence on the team and the players and lets see what happens but we can assure you this to be a thrilling and a fascinating match.

England in the nets

Welcome back to Super sport, today the English were found training hard in the nets. The starting team hasn’t been decided yet and will be decided on the match day.

 

——

Continued

——

	Hello and welcome , from me Geoffrey Boycott, to “The BT Cricket Show” where we, my guests and I will be previewing the match between England and South Africa live from The Oval, England. This is the first episode of this show and we hope with viewers help we will make this show one of the BT Shows to watch!With me today I have Robin Jackman and Tony Cozier. First to you Tony,a very important match for England as they are way down the log with South Africa and having a few problems!
	Yes, this match is going to very important for the English because they didn’t produced good cricket against India and many question were raised. But I feel the best way to answer them is winning the match against South Africa. Its going to be tough no doubt of it as the South Africans are a good side
	England surely have lots of things to prove but no doubt the South Africans will give them a very tough time. I agree it will be difficult to beat England but South Africa are in good form and haven’t lost the last 2 games, so that makes things more exciting. There is also that possible Semi final spot that they will be eying out!
	With the matches we will have different things happening. A prediction competition was successfully ran by sunrider and we are sure their will be many more! Maybe we could integrate that with this show. But for today we thought of a quick and easy contest for our viewers.  Predict the question: Q1:Who will win the toss? a)England b)South Africa   Q2:How many wickets will fall? a)0-5 b)6-12 c)13-20
	Stay Tuned as we return we will have the weather and pitch report along with the all important toss.

SA U19 vs Aus U19 – season 12

Match Report
By Weeksy
Here is the match report for the South Africa vs Australia game, sorry its a bit late. Hope ya like it.

Game 2 saw our under 19 boys travel to the land down under of Australia, with the game being played at Adelaide.

Rob Ward and Derek “Mysterious” Groenink walked out to toss the coin. Ward won the toss and sent South Africa into bat on an uneven pitch.
Groenink (55 of 71) and Tony Mullen (44 of 45) led the way brilliantly with a great opening partnership of 101, unfortunately, Jimmy ‘The Pain’ Hurter
could not add a single run to the partnership with Groenink as he was dismissed for a duck, then Groneink was out as well.

Loosing three quick wickets like that was not a good sign for the boys, they looked to Doug “The Giant” Kempen and Ray “maddog” Myall to steady the ship,
unfortunately Myall couldn’t do the job only making 4. With the team total now on 124/4 things didn’t look to good.
Kempen was now joined at the crease with Miles “North” Weston, these boys then went on to play brilliantly and stand up for their country when they needed to most.
Kempen ended up on 77 not out from 96 deliveries with Weston facing 74 balls for his not out performance of 77.
The end of 50 overs saw the score at 265/4, mainly thanks to the great opening partnership of Mullen and Groenink, then another partnership followed with Kempen and Weston putting on 141 together.

Now it was time for the South Africa boys to head out and defend their total of 265. The boys were on a high after they got a wicket with the first delivery of the day thanks to Pete Mbata bowling great lines and getting Frank Chambers to hit a catch straight to Shaun Mbatha.
Mbata then followed on to take the next to wickets to end with figures of 3/49 with 1 maiden of his 10 overs. Frank Dhanji was the star batter for Australia making 103.
Kris Nordien was another bowler who chipped in claiming 2 wickets off his 10 overs for 45 runs. Vic Mosheua also bowled good lines, but was unlucky to claim a wicket finishing up with figures off 10 overs 1 maiden for 41 runs.

Australia being at 3 fa 180 were looking alright, but some quick wickets by Nordien brought them back to be 6 fa 213.
The game was coming down to the wire, the crowd started to chew on their fingernails with 31 needed off the last 3 overs. You must say it was looking slightly in favour of SA.
Unfortunatley they got 17 of the 48th over. With Australia only needed 14 off 2 now and the ball was tossed to Phillip ‘Dennis’ Norden to trundle his arm over for the last over of the day.
He bowled well, but with luck not on his side, Australia won with 1 ball remaining, unlucky for our boys, after putting up such a great effort with the bat and then following up to get some quick wickets with the ball.
Plenty of positive to come out of the game, batting partnerships, and some good bowling when wickets were needed.

we now look forward to the next match against Pakistan at home, good luck boys, you are starting to play well together now and a win is just around the corner.

SA U19 vs NZ U19 – season 12

Match Report.

Yesterday, Season 12 kicked off with a home match against New Zealand.
Prior to the match we had a few players with jetlag and thus the choice of who to play was that much more difficult. With 3 spinenrs being in good form, the groundsman at Newlands went out and worked hard to get the pitch dusty to try help them out.

New Zealand won the toss and sent us in to bat.
Bill “whitewolf” Strydom and Dan “Toffee” Wilson opened the batting for us.
Strydom started well with a quick single to get the board ticking. A ball or two was quickly sent to the boundry, showing we are ready for the challange.

Fifth over Wilson missed a inswinging yorker and leg stump was gone and so was he.
Our keeper for the day, Tony “Mullet” Mullen came to the crease but only lasted 1 over before being sent back with to the dressing room.
Seeing wickets falling next to him, Strydom went the next over for 24.

Two new batsman at the crease and all preasure on them with us at 36/3.
Doug “The Giant” Kempen got a quick 11 to help with a few runs to get us to 69/4

Gerry Ledingham and Ray “maddog” Myall to try steady the ship after a dismal start.
With great bowlign from the New Zealand bowlers, our runrate started to slowly drop.
With four batsman down, these two had to get a decent platform for us.
In the 31st over Myall made his debut halve ton and sure was set for his 100.
Ledingham followed soon, but with our runrate at below 4, it was going to be difficult to defend.

Last 10 overs to go, 158/4 and we could still set up a decent total.
In the 45th over we got too eager and lost 4 batsman in 1 over, with New Zealand bowler, Killen, taking a hattrick.
Myall running himself out and our 2 AR’s not putting anything on the board.
Down to 190/8 we were just hoping to get 200 on the bord and defend when we field.

A low target of 206 was set up with a required runrate of 4.12 needed.

New zealand started well, as we did, and a early runout was joyfully accepted by the spectators and team.
They kept the runs keeping ticking over and had wickets in hand.
Phillip ‘Dennis’ Norden struck in the 10th over and took the settling Tsimba.
Fitness was showing on our bowlers and we just did not pitch the ball in the right places and did not keep the runrate down.
On the NT side our lads were looking good agaisnt India (93-3, runrate=4.65, reqrunrate=6.47 (286-4)), and RL, SA just needed to stay in.
Back on topic
Caleb “The Ambassador” Ferreira came back for his second spell and got Shanks just before he made is 50.
Runrate still being a problem and NZ having depth, wickets is what we needed!
Pete Mbata struck two overs later and New Zealand 176/4, we can still pull it off.

Mbata clean bowled Carter-harris, the danger man at that point, 2 shy off his maiden debut century.
With it all being too little too late,we lost the match with 5 overs remaining.

Bad day for SA cricket

Battrick: SA U19 vs Aus U19

Reporting from Newlands today where Australia won the toss and elected to put South Africa in to bat on their home pitch.

The pitch is looking rather cracked and on this hot sunny day it would be a field day for the seamers.

Sticks and Mouse opened the batting for us today and started the first over with a bang. Sticks looked as he was going for a great innings but lost his wicket early.

Karpov joined Mouse at the crease, coming in lower down on in the order. These two put up a great 64 run partnership when a dterrible umpiring decision sent Karpov back into the stands.

With the loss of the wicket Australia had us on the back foot and the runrate started to drop. Their bowlers were bowling great and the batsman did their best to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Mouse got his fifty and was trying his best to improve on his 83 vs England. Anthony lost his wicket as the 2 made their 100 run partnership, that kept our boat steady.

Disney in and want show that he is not a few run wonder and put bat to ball to assist Mouse in his first century. Disney started to show why he was picked and hit 5 fours and 3 sixes to take his score to 63 off 44 balls. Mouse lost his wicket and Farmer came in, hitting 2 great fours in the last over, to steer SA to a mighty 276-4 in the alotted overs.

The Antichrist opened the bowling and early gave away 6 runs. Could this show what is waiting in the next 49 overs?
The Animal bowlign from the duck pond end showed great line and length to keep Australia at bay.

Australia kept a good runrate and it was high priority to get it lower. Screech and Blade came in and really tightened the ropes on Australia with great bowling to put huge pressure on the batsman.
With the runrate dropping drastically and the RRR growing, it started swinging the game back into SA’s favour.
Still with no wickets taken, we were happy with the runrate dropping.

Jimmy came on for his session, taking over the great spell from Blade to keep the runs low. By the time The Animal came back for his second session the batsman was so frustrated that 2 wickets fell insuccession.

The last 10 overs remaining and at this stage SA and Aus were on the same score.

The required runrate creeping up high for the Aus, it was all or nothing. Our bowlers kept their cool and alowed the singles to go.

These last 20-30 min the threads were full of supporters that watched the game. F5 buttons were pressed millions of times, stress increased and all to see our boys beat Australia in the greatest game played in BT.

Congrats to the lads!

South Africa U19 won by 9 runs.
South Africa U19 276-4
Australia U19 267-2

The ratings say it all!

____________ _South Africa U19__Australia U19_
_Top Order:_____masterful________phenomenal__
_Middle Order:___exquisite_______ _masterful_____
_Lower Order:__ _abysmal_________abysmal______
_Seam Bowling:__masterful________masterful_____
_Spin Bowling:___sensational_____ _masterful_____
_Fielding:______ _proficient_______ _strong________

Battrick: SA U19 vs Eng U19

Match 2

Welcome to Newlands for the match between South Africa U19 and England U19.
The pitch is looking quite cracked! A field day for the seam bowlers I would reckon on this sunny day.

South Africa have made a few changes in their team since their last match,one of them making sure they selected the captain

The inclusion of all-rounder Casey means that we have a long batting line-up today. Whitbread took the new ball with Casey assisting from the other end.

Casey struck in the 5th over, taking the middle stump out of the ground and running around like Alan Donald with arms spread out wide.

The runrate stuck at around 5 an over and by the 20th over England put a 100 on the board. The 2 batsman in made the hundred partnership when Morrison beat the batsman all ends up.

The next batsman came to the crease and started knocking the balls all over the field. Blakeman did his best to keep the runrate down.
Even though it went all in vain as Whitbread and Morrison came on and the last 10 overs were the most expensive of the match. Could this cost SA the match?
The inclusion of a spinner could of helped slow the runrate down.

England set a decent toal of 268-4.

Our guys have the ability to chase the total down.
Van der walt and Henning opened the batting for us with Iveson, Anthony, Warren, Khulekani , and Casey still to come and bat.

Starting with a chase of just over 5 runs an over, Van der Walt set out to get the runs quick but was found plumb in front of the wicket.

Our skipper came in and was hoping to better his debut score of 30 but showed real sportmanship with a nick behind decision and decided to walk.

Anthony and Henning together showed great determination kept the score ticket over. The runrate was dropping but all was hoping that they would speed up.

Henning got his 50 first with Anthony following a few overs later. At the 30 over mark the required runrate creeped up into the 7’s and the need for runs was clear. The 2 slowly increase the strike rate and cought up with the England score at that stage, but again the last 10 overs is where it would all boil down too.

Both batsman reached their centiories but at a slow rate and thus putting more stress on themselfs and giving the upper hand to England.

Finishing 12 runs short in the end it showed were the runs were restricted in the middle of the innings cost us at the end and our bowlers giving away too many runs in the last session.

Thus the opening series of the season against England came to a draw. We could and should of won this match but great bowling by England put the odds back into their favour.

Now back to the drawing board for the Australia encounter and resting players for tough 2 match’s next week.

Battrick: Eng U19 vs SA U19

Match 1

Evening everybody,

To all those who missed the game, read on.

Tim IvesonPladzoeder, our captain today, won the toss and elected that we go in and bat.

A shuffle of two spots saw Esterhuizen and Iveson opening the batting for SA. As our opening match for our U19 the team was still a bit unknown.

Our two openers got a steady foundation down with singles to rotate the strike and hitting a four almost every over.
Iveson was gettign frustrated and attempted a reverse sweep, but lost his wicket for that attempt.

Khulekani came in and set off with a blistering pace to assist Esterhuizen with increasing the runrate. In the 24 over saw us getting 100 on the board and Easterhuizen making his debut maiden 50.

Khulekani lost his wicket 9 runs short of his 50. Making 41 off 49 balls for a strike rate of 83.67. Esterhuizen still assisting with keeping the boat afloat was fast on his way to make that 50 into a 100.

“Karpov” Warren our keeper came in with 17 overs left of the innings and was eager for the English bowlers.
First ball he drove into covers for 2, just to get his eye in. 4 overs later Esterhuizen swings and steps out of his crease for a easy stumping.

Platzoeder and Warren both ready for the final 10 onslaught.
Both of them quickly made hitting boundaries feel like second nature and saw the fielders drop their shoulders.
With singles to keep the strike rotated saw only 3 dot balls in the last 10 overs.
Between them they racked up 13 fours, sixes and in one over celebrate their maiden 50’s in style to take South Africa to a great total of 277 for 3.

Change of innings and Maymann and Whitbread opening the bowlign for us. Whitbread’s first ball see’s the batsman getting a thick edge and Warren taking a great catch behind the stumps.

England were set out to try and get the runs went all guns blazing. Maymann countered with another quick wicket. Thus putting Eng at 17 for 2 after 3 overs.

10 over down and with England being 2 wickets down also 4 runs behind. Waren shoed his reflex and glove skills by taking a stumping setting England to 67-3.

At the 20 over mark they were ahead by 23 runs but with our great bowlign having them at 3 wickets down. “The Terminator” Metcalf bowled a sitter for a easy catch for Platzoeder in the field.

With the runrate creaping up it was getting tight for the batsman. England Griffen kept the runs ticking even with wickets falling next to him.
Barker came back for his final few overs to take 2 important wickets and putting the home team on the back foot.

With 14 overs left Whitbread and Mayman came back for their last spells to finish off the tail enders.
Bringing a great thumping from the visitors. Winning by 112 runs.

“Thanks again to all our player’s managers and well done to our boys for showing they can do it”, is all the manager could say before being swept away for the after match party.

Man of the Match : Esterhuizen

___________England U19____South Africa U19
Top Order: _exquisite_______miraculous
Middle Order: remarkable ___remarkable
Lower Order: worthless _____abysmal
Seam Bowling: exceptional __exquisite
Spin Bowling: wonderful ____exquisite
Fielding: respectable _______proficient

SA U19 – Season 11 Squad

Ryan Anthony
Steven Barker
Franny Blakeman
Marc Brush
Ged Casey
Anthony Esterhuizen
Nigel Gervaise
Roy Henning
Tim Iveson
Terry Khulekani
George Maymann
Joe Metcalf
Nick Moerkerken
Matt Morrison
Marc O’graydy
Daren Platzoeder
Carlos Swanepoel
Matt Van der walt
Craig Warren
Rodge Whitbread
Kieran Willis
Hamid Xhosa

 

And with that – i would like to thank all those involved.

It has been a hard 2 seasons for the managers, who has taken a step back for their club to put their country in front. To you all – Thank you very much and your boys are in good hands.

To managers who’s boys did not make it. Thank you for the time, willingness and all my messages that bugged you and remember that NT always needs you and your next YP could be here.

Ahead i thank all those who will be assisting me. From suggestions,NT management team, scouting, match reports & even cheerleaders (savagefox )

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the pitch, we shall never surrender!

Now let us go win the WC

The Armchair : Are they ready?

* An advert comes on to the TV before the introduction of Battrick SA TV, there are a few pictures of last year’s cup game…the advert slowly fades out to the presenter Ron Smith

RS: “Recently selected manager Scienide elected a team of enthusiastic young lads, hailing from all parts of the country…Hi I am Ron Smith and joining me for this show is non other than William Phillips”

WP: “Thanks for having me on this show, now the team has been selected and it’s taken the manager some time which I’m certain he needed, there’s an old saying that fools rush in where angels fear to tread, but he didn’t do that”

RS: “William, many fans around has been asking the question who will lead the team any ideas?”

WP: “It’s certainly a good question but I can’t tell you who it’s going to be as none of the others also don’t know but Tim Iveson has shown true leadership skills when I visited a few training sessions at his club, I was surely impressed by the way he took on the older chaps”

RS: Well that’s us for now…

*The camera fades away and a song from Miley Stewart’s new album entitled “See You Again” starts to play with pictures of the chosen U19 squad members starts to play*

1. Ryan Anthony – a current player for Arsenal, Anthony has shown great maturity at the crease, after being transferred from his former club Anthony has grown in to a very valuable asset.

2. Franny Blakeman – Franny turned down Australian citizenship at a young age and now will get the chance to perform with the green and gold, playing for Lynx Dragons in Australia Franny has become a very useful bowler with his 33 wickets.

3. Marc Brush – it seems like an Aussie invasion but Brush is a priceless player to have in your armoury, though many critics have criticised Brush for his lack of picking up wickets and the fact that he hasn’t scored many runs but Scienide will probably show faith in the lad, many great things are still to come from this boy.

4. Ged Casey – like his club’s name suggest Casey is a powerhouse in both forms of the game, well disciplined bowling added with that touch adventurous batting Casey is a sure chip off the old block

5. Anthony Esterhuizen – Also part of an Australian club Anthony is a high-quality batsman having added two fifties to his name in the season so far Esterhuizen has done quite well in the season considering the league he is involved

6. Roy Henning – the fact that the season is in about it’s 5th week and Henning not having any game time (OD) wise, the decision for Scienide will be hard pitting him into the line-up but Theface conceivably spared him for training and leaving him fresh for national duties.

7. Tim Iveson – Hailing from KZN, Iveson is a remarkable talent, Iveson has some good quality leader skills and can hold his own with the bat, considered an opener Iveson has shown great maturity which is hard to find in young players.

8. Terry Khulekani – is a Boland boy, in recent times Terry has been struggling with the bat, but a very good season last season helped him in the squad, he will certainly make it hard for selectors to overlook him

9. Joe Metcalf – big and strong nailing balls in at the speed of light, Metcalf bragged last season with 40 wickets and maintaining a reasonable run rate, in this form of the game wickets are essential but also keeping the rate down looks like Metcalf has the ability.
10. Marc O’graydy – the lad has had it tough in his career thus far but like they say it’s better to learn the hard way and Marc certainly had so far, the amount of experience he will take into the team will be valuable considering the demanding league in DIV 2 he is involved in.

11. Graig Warren – will have had time learning Dutch with his club manager Schorpie but walking into the national under 19 team Dutch won’t help you, but Warren knew this so when he entered he probably said “Ik ben Graig Warren” took the bat smacked a few balls and said who needs a formal introduction if the bat can do the talking “ Drunter, Drauf und Drüber”

12. Rodge Whitbread – talented bowler from England but proud to don the green and gold, Rodge will try to dazzle his opponents with speed variations he has, a very good asset to have in the middle part of the game.
13. Kieran Willis – the club this guy comes from speaks volume for itself , it’s any young cricketers or even well settled ones to be part of Argentina Basel in EP, Willis is a very economical bowler which is very needed in the form of the game keeping the rate down in crucial overs will be what the team will need and Willis will be the man to provide.

14. Hamid Xhosa – an exciting talented all-rounder very good with both bat and ball will provide the team with that extra spark, Hamid can step in to the role of being a batter and also be helpful as a bowler, Xhosa will boost the batting line-up along with his bowling skills.

So there you have it the selected 14 players so far, it will be a hard road for these youngsters but let’s have faith in them they are the chosen players to lead SA and we all salute you.

Best of luck to the newly appointed manager Scienide everybody in SA knows you can do it.

 

 

*witten by Johny Christ aka shev. – www.javakings.net*

Battrick: U19 managers Election

Fellow BT members – it is my great pleasure to welcome you to my managers election thread – and in particular how i can work together with you and ensure we continue the development and involvement in our young NT players.

Last month we saw our young lads get to the Semi-finals with the great work of De Villiers. Now to look not to the past but to the future.

Whilst there are different approaches to training and management procedures, we still all have a common ambition to win the WC in 2 seasons time.

This is just not a job, but a challenge and to raise the skill level to improve enjoyability. Within BT we have so much to learn from each other, sharing experience and knowledge has been one of our greatest strengths, but not giving away too much of the game

My contribution to this approach will be my dialogue between managers, myself and “NT management”.

What i have to offer is my blood, toil, sweat and tears.
“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the pitch, we shall never surrender!”

How can we turn ourselves into an even more successful BT nation? I have always been impressed with our managers doing their bit for our nation! I want to use that and continue our success.

Thank you for taking the time to read my opening speech.
I will try my best with the question and answer them to the best of my abilities.