RSA-U19_ARRIVE_INDIA_20MAR1996

South African under-19 team arrives for Indian tour

By Sharda Ugra

MUMBAI, March 19.

An under-19 South African team due to play three Tests and three one-day Internationals against the Indian Colts in March-April arrived here on Tuesday. The 15-member team has two left-arm leggies, Darren Cowley and Tulani Ngxoweni.

The first South African under-19 team to visit India, led by 18- year-old Douglas Gain visited the Wankhede Stadium this afternoon for a short while. The players spent time stretching, exercising, playing rugby and soccer. They also soaked in the atmosphere of the renovated Wankhede Stadium, staring up at the scoreboard which still bore the names of the players involved in the last big match here: the India vs Australia World Cup tie.

Team manager Aboubaker Taliep said that Gain`s team was wellbalanced with a lot of all-round talent. Gain is considered one of the best junior captains in South Africa, former national skipper Jackie McGlew rating him good enough to lead a provincial side in four or five years.

Two chinaman bowlers

The South African under-19 slow bowling department contains two off spinners along with the two left arm chinaman bowlers, of whom Cowley is a genuine all rounder. In the quick bowling department, the South African colts have an exciting young find in Eugene Moleon, who has been nurtured through Eddie Barlow`s coaching programme in Cape Town over the last eight months. However Moleon, said Taliep, is caught between a career in cricket and athletics, his fastest time in the 100m sprint being 10.06. Five players on this under-19 team represent their provinces in first-class cricket and two others play on the provincial `B` teams.

The South Africans have been forced to change their junior cricket system to stay in step with international norms. Previously all junior cricketers came under the fold of a Schools team, a South African Schools team touring England as late as last year. The emphasis has now shifted to age group cricket and the formation of under-19 age group means that players out of school can get exposure playing their peers abroad.

The SA Schools team to England won only a couple of games, losing the Test and one-day series. Six of the players on that tour are in India and Taliep said, ``We would like to see an improvement from that performance in England to begin with. We are aware that conditions are very different here and we`ve been having workshops to discuss what to expect.``

The SA under-19 team management had spent time preparing for this tour by talking to several people involved in South African tours to the sub-continent, including United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher and the two managers of the South African squad on the World Cup team, Cassim Docrat and Goolam Rajah. This young South African team contains three black players, and Taliep said the number of non-white South Africans taking to cricket was growing larger in the younger age-groups.

``The development programme is very active, more in some parts of the country than others. In Transvaal and Cape Town for example, half of the junior provincial teams may be black or coloured or of Indian origin. The younger age groups you look at the more players you see of different ethnic backgrounds. Development at schools level is going well and we can hope that some of these players will go through to the provincial and national level.``

Matches in north India

The team will concentrate its travel and play mostly in north India, due to the better weather there at this time of the year. The team begins its tour with a one-day match versus an under- 19 Combined XI on March 23. They will then move on to Amritsar, where they will play a three-day game versus the rest of India from March 26 to 28 and travel to Patiala to play another three-day match versus the BCCI President`s XI. They will play three Tests against the India under-19 side, in Chandigarh (April 4 to 7), Delhi (April 10 to 13) and Kanpur (April 16 to 19). The team will play three one-day Internationals against the India under-19s to round off their tour in Gwalior (April 22), Indore (April 24) and Delhi or Jaipur (on April 26).

Incidentally, the physiotherapist of this squad is Border province representative Frans Cronje, elder brother to Wessel Johannes Cronje, better known to the cricketing world as Hansie, captain of South Africa.

The South African under-19 team: Douglas Gain (captain/Transvaal), Maghiel Van Olts (vice-captain/ Eastern Province), Mark Benfield (Transvaal), Anthony Botha (Natal), Mark Boucher (Border), Darren Cowley (Natal), Boets Dippenaar (Free State), Manantau Haywood (Eastern Province), Pierre Joubert (Northern Transvaal), Justin Kemp (Border), Tulani Ngxoweni (Border), Makhaya Ntini (Border), Eugene Moleon (Western Province), Ashwell Prince (Eastern Province) and Wade Wingfield (Natal). Manager: Aboubaker Taliep. Coach: Stephen Jones. Physiotherapist: Frans Cronje.

Source :: The Hindu