High hopes for Tuskers
The newly-promoted Tuskers are preparing at "full steam" for next season, including dealing with important player contracts.
Passionate followers in the Midlands can look forward to having a feast of professional games on their doorstep in the new cricket campaign.
The capital city of Kwazulu-natal can now boast two professional teams — Maritzburg United (PSL) and Aet-sponsored Tuskers in the Division One of Cricket SA'S domestic set-up.
Besides changing the sporting landscape of the city, the local cricket team's professional games are expected to bring in more followers, teams, international scouts, tourists and huge financial "spin-offs".
Tuskers CEO Jason Sathiaseelan yesterday told Public Eye that everybody in the camp was excited and preparations were going smoothly.
Sathiaseelan said: "This promotion is huge for the city of Pietermaritzburg in various aspects. The best players in the country and the top teams will now play in our city and this can only benefit our city through business and tourism.
"From a preparation point of view, we are currently working on contracting players for the new season, which in itself is a monumental task.
"It is not an easy market because we had to wait to be promoted before talking to players and this means that most players had already committed to other franchise teams.
"Having said that, we believe we are working towards putting an exciting squad together."
Sathiaseelan also indicated that a couple of changes and renovations may take place at The Oval for which sponsors are needed, but the "famous" tree on the pitch won't be affected.
"We are a non-profit organisation and are very reliant on businesses to help us. We want to and need to upgrade our stadium. In this regard I am engaging with municipality and local businesses to partner with us to put together a good stadium that we can be proud of. The discussions are ongoing.
"The tree is an iconic part of history for the Pietermaritzburg Oval and with televised matches expected this year, it will become a feature. We embrace this uniqueness and it is a special part of our history and just adds another dimension to playing cricket in our city."
Sathiaseelan also indicated that although it is currently a challenge, the local side is also thinking of taking some of their "warm-up" games to other parts of the Midlands region because there are certain Cricket SA standards that need to be met before hosting a professional game.
"While the Tuskers' base is Pietermaritizburg, we represent the Inland region. There are requirements to be met by host venues in order to have matches in stadiums, our first priority would be to upgrade the Oval to meet those standards. Whilst we would love to take matches to different parts of Inland, the logistics and stadium requirements may prove to be a challenge. However, that does not stop us from taking the AET Tuskers to the areas to play warm matches. It is something we certainly will look into," he said.