Jiveshen’s star shines bright
NO SOONER had cricketer Jiveshen Pillay celebrated South Africa’s opening match win at the 2018 ICC U19 World Cup in New Zealand, he was named in the Powerade National Academy Programme for the year.
The opening left-handed batsman from uMzinto played an influential role in the weekend’s 169-run victory over Kenya, scoring 62 runs off 67 balls as the junior Proteas amassed 341-7 in their first group clash at the event. Earlier this week, Pillay was included in Cricket South Africa’s national academy when the men’s and women’s intakes were announced for the year. Both squads will enter the programme in late May and enjoy elite coaching and mentoring until late July.
All going well, Pillay can target a spot in the SA Emerging Men’s squad, which will be named for the tour of Sri Lanka in August when they will play three four-day matches and three one-day matches.
“The Powerade National Academy Programme forms a very strategic part of our developmental pipeline,” commented CSA General Manager: Cricket, Corrie van Zyl, “and aims to prepare young players for the demands of professional cricket. These selected players who are carefully identified include previous graduates of the SA U/19 programme, performing senior provincial and emerging franchise players.
“This past year saw a highly successful SA Emerging Squad away series against Zimbabwe A and it has been highly encouraging to see the manner in which a number of them have gone on to the next level of making their franchise squads.
“In addition, two members of the Powerade National Academy intake last year – Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder – went on to represent the Standard Bank Proteas. Ngidi is currently making his Test debut against India.
“Odine Kirsten, who was a member of the Women’s National Academy intake last year, represented the Momentum Proteas at the ICC Women’s World Cup.
“This confirms that this programme is living up to its expectations to assist CSA and its members to develop the identified players in such a way that will produce quality players for our domestic competitions as well as prepare them for future international participation.”
Pillay’s captain in New Zealand, Raynard van Tonder, and fellow teammate Matthew Breetzke are also in the academy draft. The past year has been a busy one for former Maritzburg College pupil Pillay.
He scored a century in his debut series for the junior national side against the West Indies in July and followed up with several further solid contributions against England and Namibia recently.
The university student also played varsity cricket, a bit of provincial cricket for the Multiply Titans, and turned out in the Africa T20 Cup for Northerns, which earned him the nod for POWERADE SA NATIONAL ACADEMY MEN’S SQUAD:
Ryan Rickleton (bizhub Highveld Lions), Jiveshan Pillay (Multiply Titans), Matthew Breezke (Warriors), Tony de Zorzi (Multiply Titans), Kagiso Rapulana (bizhub Highveld Lions), Raynard van Tonder (VKB Knights), Thsepang Dithole (bizhub Highveld Lions), Gary Mahlokana (Multiply Titans), Smangaliso Nhlebela (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Junaid Dawood (World Sports Betting Cape Cobras), Onke Nyaku (Warriors), Ethan Bosch (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Nandre Burger (bizhub Highveld Lions), Kerwin Mungroo (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Mthiwekhaya Nabe (World Sports Betting Cape Cobras), Sinethemba Queshile (Warriors)
Powerade SA National Academy Women’s Squad: Palesa Mapoo (Gauteng), Nadia Mbokotwana (WP), Sarah Smith (WP), Nondumiso Shangase (KZN Coastal), Izel Cilliers (Free State), Anneke Bosch (North West), Robyn Searle (Gauteng), Tumi Sekhukhune (Easterns), Stacey Lackay (Boland), Gandhi Jafta (Border), Lara Goodall (WP), Tatum le Roux (WP), Zintle Mali (Border), Faye Tunnicliffe (Boland)
that national call-up against the islanders.
The other countries in Group A in New Zealand are the West Indies and the hosts. Group B is formed by Australia, India, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe; Group C consists of Bangladesh, Canada, England and Namibia; and Group D comprises Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Ireland. The top two sides from each group will advance to the Super League while the remaining eight teams will figure in the Plate Championship.
Meanwhile, senior national stars Hashim Amla, Kagiso Rabada, Faf du Plessis and Morne Morkel are among the South Africans who are part of the list of 1 122 professionals who have registered for the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.
The bidding will be held on January 27 and 28 in Bengaluru, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced recently.
England’s Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan and West Indian power-hitter Chris Gayle are some of the other big-name franchises will hope to sign.
A total of 26 players from England, 58 from Australia, 30 from New Zealand and 57 from South Africa have registered for the auction, taking the overseas players to 282.
Afghanistan will see 13 players in the list while there are 39 from Sri Lanka and an equal number from the West Indies.
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have eight and seven players, respectively, hoping to go under the hammer.
Mitchell Starc, who ended his association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the last IPL, has also entered the auction that includes Chris Lynn, Pat Cummins, Dwayne Bravo, Carlos Brathwaite, Evin Lewis and Jason Holder.
The in-form Glenn Maxwell and Shane Watson, who was mulling calling time on his IPL career last year, have entered the race with Mitchell Johnson, who has retired from international cricket but continues to play in the Big Bash League.
Lasith Malinga, whose form has taken a considerable dip in the last year or so, will be part of the auction with his Sri Lanka mates Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella.
Kane Williamson, Colin Munro and Tom Latham of New Zealand will add their charm to the league.
Among the Indians, a fierce bidding war is expected to break out when Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav and openers Lokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay go under the hammer.
The full list has already been sent out to the eight franchises.
There are a total of 281 capped players, 838 uncapped players, which also includes 778 Indian players, apart from three players from Associate nations.
India’s obsession with Twenty20 cricket was on full display during an IPL retention event, with television sets, mobile devices and social media abuzz with mentions and conversations on the event.
According to a statement by television network Star India, the event was viewed by an audience of 8.1 million people across both television and digital formats.
As per data released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), 4.1 million television viewers watched the event across the Star Sports network on January 4 while another four million watched the event on digital platform Hotstar.
On social media, the event dominated conversations across platforms with 35 000 mentions.
“The discovery and nurturing of great cricketing talent and developing the cricketing infrastructure throughout the country, are important pillars of our mission at BCCI,” said BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri.
“Therefore, a quantum increase in the growth and popularity of the Vivo IPL 2018 would immensely scale up deliveries on those important fronts. We are delighted that with the transformative technology and the might of TV and digital combined, the Vivo IPL 2018 seems poised to be bigger than ever before,” he added. – IANS