KZN U13s win Sunfoil Township Night tournament

This is the fifth year that the Willowton Group – manufacturers of Sunfoil pure sunflower cooking oil – has come on board as sponsors of the event, which provides disadvantaged youngsters from across the country with the unique opportunity to showcase their talent.

Willowton Group’s support for this initiative follows the highly successful rollout of the KwaZulu-Natal Township Tournament in 2007. 

In Gauteng, the additional resources provided by Willowton Group’s sponsorship enables the Gauteng Cricket Board to provide cricket coaching during cricket season to children in disadvantaged areas. Each year, Willowton and the GCB set out to reach more and more youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds, giving them an opportunity to play cricket.  

Greg Fredericks, CEO of the Gauteng Cricket Board, said: “The GCB U/13 Sunfoil Township Night Tournament, in partnership with the Willowton Group, has enabled us to give quality playing opportunities to youngsters that they otherwise would not have had.”

“This fits perfectly with the Gauteng Cricket Board’s strategy of developing exceptionally successful players from our cricket pipeline. My sincere appreciation goes to Willowton for again partnering with us on this project.”

The tournament consisted of 10 teams made up of 12 U13 boys per team, drawn from the KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Easterns and Northerns unions as well as six township teams from Gauteng. All the youngsters competed in a cricket league in the first and fourth school terms and selections of the best 120 cricketers are made from the competing areas.

The event was held at the Johannesburg Cricket Oval – the first of its kind for the inner city - which forms part of a massive upgrade of the Ellis Park precinct in the run-up to the Confederation’s Cup.

The GCB U/13 Sunfoil Township Night Tournament followed the 20/20 format, where two pools of five teams competed against each other with the top teams from each pool battling for the trophy in the final held on the evening of 21 March.  To ensure that every child got to play under floodlights, the games were staggered with one team batting first during the day and the opposing team chasing the score in the evening.  

Several exciting matches were played with two players recording scores in the 90`s Thando Tsima, (Alex) scored 97 not out and Mohammed Goodiwala (Lenasia) 91 not out.

The final was played between the invitation team from KZN and Gauteng South team with the KZN invitation team winning convincingly on the night with 8 wickets.

In addition to the winning medals and trophy, every child was provided with playing and warm-up kit, transportation, meals and accommodation at Stay City in Berea Park for the duration.  The opening ceremony also took place at the same venue.  There were also a number of Sunfoil sponsored prizes distributed throughout the course of the tournament.

“We are proud to be supporting important grass roots’ development initiatives, which use sport as a means to uplift the youth in our society,” said Shoaib Moosa, Chief Commercial Officer for the Willowton Group. “Our long-term goal is to create cricket stars of the future through the township cricket development programmes.”

“For most of these children, this is the only time they will get to play under lights so it is really an exciting experience. It is truly worthwhile seeing these children taking full advantage of this opportunity and experiencing, not only the competitive side of cricket, but the camaraderie and support that comes with the game,” he said. 

The Willowton Group is committed supporter of South African cricket from the development at grassroots level, extending to the sponsorship of Proteas Test Series Cricket.

The GCB U/13 Sunfoil Township Night Tournament has also been aligned with the Sunfoil Education Trust (SET), allowing promising candidates participating in the programme to apply for bursaries to further their academic education while receiving ongoing cricket coaching.

The special awards were made as follow:

Best Batsmen: Mohammed Goodiwala   with 169 runs

Best bowler:  Ntokozo Skhosana took 9 wickets

Player of the Tournament:  Mohammed Goodiwala