Gauteng unveil Highveld Strikers

Goodbye Gauteng, hello Highveld Strikers? Well, sort of. Gauteng, South Africa's reigning first class champions, announced a new team identity this week. Henceforth Clive Eksteen's team will be known as the Highveld Strikers.

To quote from the official press release: "The new identity is however not just a badge, or a logo on the kit, it is something much more...This identity encompasses not only what happens on the field, but through active marketing, is entrenched in the heart and soul of our community, the Highveld community."

The Gauteng Cricket Board, however, will continue to administer cricket in the province. This, of course, may confuse the compilers of fixture lists, but clearly both the GCB and the Highveld Strikers are hoping the Johannesburg public gets the hang of it sooner rather than later.

Gauteng have been sniffing around for a name for some years now. At various stages the "Gauteng Lions" and the "Gauteng Highlanders" were mooted. The latter was particularly favoured by Ken Rutherford, the former New Zealand skipper who captained Gauteng with distinction before retiring at the end of last summer. However, it is understood that the Otago Highlanders, the Dunedin-based Super 12 rugby franchise, had first dibs on the name and were unwilling to share it around.

94.7 Highveld Stereo, a Johannesburg radio station, has joined forces with Datatec to co-sponsor the Strikers, and this access to radio, it is clearly hoped, could serve to boost the dwindling crowds for provincial cricket at the Wanderers Stadium.

There is also a Highveld Strikers song, penned and performed by Ed Jordan at the Strikers' launch this week. It starts: "Extreme Team/We are fighters/Extreme Action/The Highveld Strikers" This is likely to prove, depending on taste, either wonderfully inspiring or incredibly irritating as the season wears on.

The theme of the launch was "Go eXtreme", a phrase which suggests an inability to understand the correct application of capital letters in the Gauteng marketing department. However, GCB general manager Ziggy Wadvalla says: "Ever increasing competitiveness in the entertainment industry has made it apparent that companies that want to succeed need to create identities of their own. In launching the Highveld Strikers we have done just that. I believe that it will demonstrate to the people of Gauteng a sense of belonging and ownership of their team".

We shall see.