🔗 Share this article

It is around mid-afternoon on a weekend eve and 22-year-old Sinelethu Yaso is in her favorite spot. Her clean cricket whites pop against the synthetic green pitch, while upbeat tunes of local music float on the air as she ambles in to deliver.

Past the playing area, in the Makhaza area of this community, clothes waves on a fence and the fall sun shines off a metal structure.

This statuesque young woman was asked to take it easy on her opponents – an youth boys’ team – but Yaso’s flawless line and length are effective to induce three successive failed attempts.

With her next pitch, the batter at last makes contact. All he can do is to pop it up to Yaso, who nonchalantly grabs the opportunity.

Viewing the match from his spot on the bench is a former international athlete and coach. “There’s some outstanding skill in the neighborhoods,” he notes. “The missing piece is opportunity.”

The players on the field are all part of a not-for-profit organization founded in 2014. Creating a nonprofit after stepping away from the professional cricket is not unusual – but the method certainly is.

Rather than trying to recruit talented players in the townships and then give them opportunities to private schools or universities in privileged areas, the program is all about establishing high-quality resources into the local neighborhoods.

Yaso was initially exposed to cricket in 2015. “Her instructor was also a cricket instructor,” she recalls. “One day I walked past the nets, and he asked me if I wanted to bowl.”

Yaso – who has often been a more prominent than her friends – showed herself to be a natural. Through the coaching of a committed girls’ program coach, Yaso has risen rapidly through the ranks, competing for a number of youth teams before being chosen to join the senior team in 2021.

“At the beginning I felt nerves,” she says. “But after time I got confident. I learned how the wicket behaves … it matches my style actually.”

Yaso comes to the facility almost every day, regardless if she has a practice session: “It’s hard to picture my life missing cricket.”

“It wasn’t a childhood dream,” she says, “but now with the team around me, it is more than cricket – it feels like I’ve made a support system.”

Cricket blessed me in that cricket gave me so much. It’s time to pay it forward

This effort launched in 2014, when the former player teamed up with a school leader to visit multiple schools in the township.

“After wrapping up a coaching role, and found myself with some opportunity,” notes the organizer. “I felt there was an chance to understand how the game was performing in the local areas near my home.”

He became disappointed to find that not one of the schools he went to cultivated cricket – or other activities for that matter. After consulting the schools’ leaders and employing his cricketing contacts to arrange funding, he got cricket structures built at multiple schools in the area and three coaches employed.

Since then, the resources have been enhanced – with an modern pitch laid in 2020 and a indoor cricket facility a year later – and the programme grown to include academic support who help the participants with their schoolwork and regular programs on topics such as mental health, awareness, and financial literacy. Currently, dozens of coaches and upwards of 400 players ranging from six to 19 access the facility most days a week all year the year.

In the words of the women’s program leader: “The majority of those children will not make a profession from cricket, but they are all gaining from cricket. The center is like a dream … it is a home for the participants.”

Among the opportunities that cricket offered was the chance to visit overseas and explore different cultures. While elite schools in South Africa frequently take cricket teams on trips overseas, township cricketers are fortunate if they ever explore outside their own neighbourhood.

Previously, during a international event, the founder took a junior side to the UK. “That became one of the most memorable experiences of my time in cricket,” says the former player.

In the coming year, to align with the Women’s T20 World Cup, the organizer will be taking a girls’ team to the historic venue of cricket. “I long to go to England, to the famous ground,” says Yaso, who is aspiring to be chosen. “It’s a dream I have been anticipating … it represents everything.”

The mentor is equally excited. “It’s going to be a valuable opportunity to share,” she notes. “Everyone is excited – it’s going to be the greatest experience for the youth.”

The coach feels emotional. “Being a mentor, it’s special to have a leader like the founder to call on,” she says. “Knowing that the center were created locally means the so much to us. It means that we appreciate a community member and the environment they grow up in.”