Jozi Stars strive for full value

Jozi Stars captain Temba Bavuma said yesterday that their team is all about having fun and entertaining what they hope will be a big crowd for the Mzansi Super League opener against the Cape Town Blitz at the Wanderers this evening.

But don’t expect them to be shrieking with laughter if things go wrong because they are deadly serious about being even better this year in defence of their title.

Bavuma is one of the few new players in the squad and, being the highly-respected Wanderers legend he is, he has also been named captain.

He’s not looking to change much, just trying to ensure the Jozi Stars take it up another level this season.

“The Jozi Stars are all about fun, flair and entertainment and from the outside last year with the Durban Heat, just their character and courage meant they were the team you wanted to be part of.

“I’ll look to add my own energy and flavour, but they are a wellrun machine and as captain I will just keep on pushing and challenging them to be even better.

“It’s a big game with the two teams that played in the first final to kick things off and there should be a lot of fireworks. Although we feel we have our bases covered, we know we’ll have our work cut out, but we want to make the Wanderers a fortress. We want it to be intimidating for teams to come here, so we would love to see a lot of people in the stands,” Bavuma told The Citizen at their stadium yesterday.

A measure of the continuity in the Jozi Stars line-up is that eight players who featured in last year’s final will probably take the field tonight, while the Cape Town Blitz will most likely only be able to include four. With players who play the majority of their cricket in four different countries, as well as a powerful top-order filled with ‘proper’ batsmen, the Stars certainly have an intriguing mix.

“It can be a challenge to try and integrate everybody, we have Chris Gayle from the West Indies and Dan Christian from Australia, plus a couple of guys who play most of their cricket in the UK.

“You need a mature bunch of players who know that if a guy plays ahead of you, then it’s for the good of the team.”