CRICKET: Jon Swift
PERHAPS the terminally cynical would regard it as a=20 case of putting your marketing money where the mouth of=20 the consumer of the future is, but the R5-million=20 Bakers have put into mini-cricket is just the impetus=20 cricket development needs.
The innovation of mini-cricket among the waist-high=20 members of this country’s community has, as United=20 Cricket Board president Krish Mackerdhuj points out,=20 “changed the face of South African cricket”.
The long-term nature of the sponsor’s commitment is of=20 significance. It would be foolish in the extreme to=20 believe that mini-cricket — as just one major=20 contributory factor in the overall thrust of the game’s=20 on-going development programme — is going to develop a=20 black Jonty, Fanie or Hansie overnight.
The deeply imbued love of soccer, its relative freedom=20 from the need of equipment and complexity of rules,=20 among the vast majority of this country’s community,=20 preclude cricket from the sort of mass appeal Kaizer=20 Chiefs generate.
But, as Minister of Sport Steve Tswete said, the=20 sponsors “for more than a decade have brought joy and=20 new opportunities through cricket to thousands of=20 underprivileged youngsters. The cricket development=20 programme has played a major role in the reconciliation=20 process by bringing people from all communities=20 together and is the pilot for other sporting codes to=20
Sports’ Mr Fix-it is correct in every respect. But=20 there still remains the time factor. Cricket is one of=20 those games which, once assimilated, becomes a life- long love affair. It is the assimilation process which=20 takes the time. Mini-cricket and all the other parts of=20 the programme should be aimed primarily at this … and=20 doubtless are.
For, when the kids of today take their offspring to the=20 Wanderers, to Newlands, to Springbok or Centurion Park=20 for a day in the sun to watch the current crop of top=20 players, then the development programme can be counted=20 a lasting success. And it is from the generation of=20 youngsters who learn the love of the game at the knee=20 of their fathers, that the rush of international=20 cricketers of the future will come.
It is an ideal well worth the investment … every last=20 cent of it.