Sport and education — gaining Momentum
Jerry Nqolo’s journey clearly illustrates the value of coupling sport and education to create future leaders
Jerry Nqolo’s journey is the stuff that movies are made of. We don’t want to embellish the story with tales of dusty streets, but in truth Nqolo comes from a large family in the heart of South Africa: Ntselamanzi township, situated in the small rural town of Alice, Eastern Cape. After starting with mini cricket at Lovedale Primary School, being coached by Miss Limetyeni and then moving to hardball cricket under the watchful eye of coach Loyiso Sibaca, Nqolo’s talent was soon noticed.
In 2001 at the age of 10, Nqolo was spotted by Greg Hayes and the coaching crew at the Fort Hare Rural Cricket Academy, and earned a bursary at Dale College Primary School in King William’s Town, a school with a strong focus on education as well as sporting prowess. This meant boarding at Dale, a big move for a young lad. Being away from home was a challenge, but weekends home made it better, until he started playing cricket for the school on Saturdays. He says it was tough in the beginning but well worth it when he recognises where he is today.
Throughout his school years, Nqolo showed his talent with provincial representation in all age group teams and selection to the SA Schools team in 2008 and the SA Colts team in 2009. He’s a solid allrounder: a right- handed batsman, a right arm medium pace bowler and an excellent fielder.
He made his one-day debut for the Border Senior team vs Griquas in 2009, and in 2010 Nqolo represented the SA U19 team at the U19 World Cup in New Zealand. In 2010 he joined the Momentum-supported Cricket South Africa (CSA) Fort Hare Academy in Alice, and then it all came together when he received a Junior Warriors contract in 2011 and moved to Port Elizabeth to study at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Shortly thereafter he proudly bought his first car, finally making use of the many driving lessons he received from his brothers.
In 2012 he moved back to the CSA academy and continued with his studies at Fort Hare University. At the academy Nqolo gave free driving lessons to his fellow cricketers in his car. This gave birth to the driving lessons programme, which is now part of the academy’s life skills programme.
In 2012 Nqolo received a semipro contract with Border Cricket, where he worked hard at developing his skills. His years of hard work finally paid off. All-rounder Jerry Nqolo is now a fully contracted professional player for the Eastern Cape-based domestic franchise team the Warriors. This year the Warriors made it to the finals of the domestic 2017 Momentum One Day Cup championships. Unfortunately they did not walk away with the trophy, but a good-showing final is still a worthy accolade. The icing on top is that Nqolo is also the proud holder of a BA in Human Movement Sciences, so his professional career is also backed up by future career prospects.
The best way to invest in the future of South Africa is to invest in young South Africans. Education has been cited as the silver bullet to get a largely unemployed generation ready for and into the workforce. Focussed efforts along with meaningful partnerships are needed to make sure that every resource, every opportunity and every talent is exploited towards creating a prosperous and empowered society.
Financial services and financial wellness company Momentum has taken successful sustainability into consideration by connecting its sponsorship properties with some of its corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives. The intention is that this innovative connection will drive success as the sponsorship of cricket gives rise to organic opportunities for talented youngsters.
Motivated to create growth within the cricket fraternity and to further nation-building, Momentum has dedicated resources to use the ethos of sport as a channel to inspire educational and financial growth, by providing support to aspiring cricket players across South Africa. Besides support for the Fort Hare Rural Cricket Academy, which provides facilities and clinics for local children — plus tertiary bursary opportunities — Momentum also supports a school bursary programme, the Momentum 2 Excellence bursary programme.
In 2009 the University of Fort Hare, CSA and Border Cricket identified the need to develop potential in and around the Alice rural area within the Border region. A partnership with Momentum was formed to run a joint venture cricket academy at the university in Alice.
The main objective is to ensure that well-organised programmes exist in the region, in order to produce a pipeline for rural black African cricketers, coaches, scorers, umpires and groundsmen. What made the venture more feasible was the connection to a respected centre of learning and the chance to incorporate bursaries for deserving students.
The programme is made up of two sections: the junior and senior cricket programmes. The junior cricket programme involves a vigorous talent identification process in order to find talented schoolboys and girls from U10 to U19 from the outlying rural areas of Alice, Middledrift, Healdtown and Fort Beaufort. The senior cricket programme is able to provide sports-motivated, academic bursaries for study at Fort Hare University. The bursaries are for three-year degrees, provided students maintain a level of success both on the sports fields and in academia. Seventeen students have been or are currently supported.
Nqolo’s journey clearly illustrates the value of coupling sport and education to create future leaders. Momentum CSI manager Nkosinathi Mahlangu says: “We are committed to investing in education. Including a sports development component only adds to our intended outcome of creating future leaders with character and integrity. Sportsmanship is a great enabler of these traits. With ongoing investment in education and bursary recipients in the pipeline at school and tertiary levels, we have high expectations of seeing quite a few players succeed in life — and in cricket.”
Momentum is the sponsor of all one day cricket in South Africa. This encompasses the hugely popular one day internationals (ODI’s), a robust local championship of domestic franchises and other developmental initiatives that support grassroots and youth development of cricket in South Africa. Besides sponsoring school events, such as the Momentum Schools Weeks for U17, U15 and U13 players and the Momentum Friendship Games (friendly matches between wellestablished cricket playing schools and regional clubs or collective hubs where schools have no cricket facilities), Momentum is proud to be supporting the two CSI projects mentioned. These projects place education firmly at the centre, with cricket opportunities at the periphery.
Mahlangu concludes: “Everything is in place to give these talented youngsters the best possible start in life, either as professional sports men or women, but also with a degree or diploma to their names.”
Jerry Nqolo is now a fully contracted professional player for the Eastern Capebased domestic franchise team the Warriors