Border start their battle preparations for crease fight

The Border senior provincial cricket team is back in training ahead of the coming season.

The side met on June 20 to kick-off their preparations for the coming campaign, with nine of the 11 contracted players back in the region.

Only two players are yet to return – senior batsman, Somila Seyibokwe, is playing club cricket in England, while young rising star, Jason Niemand, is also in England, but playing for the South African U19 team in their series against the hosts.

The full squad as well as a number of fringe players are expected to be back by midAugust.

“We have been back in training for just over a month now and the guys are looking good,” said Border coach Frank Plaatjes.

“The focus has been mainly on fitness so far. We have been running all week and are only now starting slowly with the skills training.”

With the team having lost a number of players ahead of the new season, including former captain Gionne Koopman, Border will have a new leader at the helm when the season gets under way in September.

“We will announce the new captain some time in the next two weeks.

“I am still chatting to the preferred candidate, and there are a couple of things to sort out before the announcement,” said Plaatjes.

Border named an extremely young squad for the coming season, which should make things very interesting.

Only two players, Phaphama Fojela, 33, and Seyibokwe, 30, are at the age of 30, while Jerry Nqolo, 27, Mkhululi Calana, 25, and Clayton Bosch, 25, are at 25.

Marco Marais, 24, and Bongolwethu Makaleni, 24, are then just under 25, while Bamanye Xenxe, Malwande Zamo and Mncedisi Malika are all 21 and Niemand only 19.

This means that the senior players will have a massive part to play over the campaign in leading and inspiring the youngsters, but it is good that all of the players have been involved in the Border set-up over the past few years.

Where Border will receive a boost over the season will be in the Warriors’ contracted players that will be made available at various stages.

Warriors bowling stalwart, Basheer Walters, and opening batsman Gihahn Cloete have indicated that they would like to represent Border when not on franchise duty.

“It is fantastic to have players of this calibre making themselves available for Border,” said Plaatjes.

“They will add a lot of value to the team and are very welcome with the rest of our existing Warriors players.”

They will join up with Christiaan Jonker and Mohammed Vallie, who have both played for Border over the last few years, and Border-bred talents, Aya Gqamane, Sithembile Langa and Sinethemba Qeshile.

Langa and Qeshile are both new recruits for the Warriors, and the youngsters will be eager to assist Border when they aren’t making their mark at franchise level.

“Langa and Qeshile are two exciting youngsters. They have came through our system and it will be great to have them available at times in the season,” said Plaatjes.

“We have a team that is more than capable of winning trophies.

“We just have to stay focused and do what is needed over a long campaign.”

Border will get their season under way by hosting a leg of the Africa Cup T20 competition from September 14-16 in East London.

South Africa will then host Zimbabwe on October 9 at Buffalo Park in a T20 international, in another exciting development for the region.

We will announce the new captain some time in the next two weeks.