What’s next for the SA U19 side?

Let’s ignore the silence and make something out of what we know.

Change may be one of the hardest things to experience in life but, very often, change is good and inevitable. The only thing I don’t like about change is how aggressive it gets when resisted. Perhaps a question to ask would be, why do we resist change? I’m sure this is a debate that would take us decades so let me not even start it.

South African cricket fans and supporters from different corners of the world had been asking for change for a while now. They had been calling for change in South African cricket from top to bottom and this is something that eventually happened. I will not get into detail with that. We are currently witnessing an interesting change in South African cricket. Having two separate coaches is not necessarily new to South African cricket but when it happened, it was for a very short period and now we get to see it on a much longer period. This change has brought about change in the SA U19 set up as well, with Coach Shukri Conrad having left the coaching role. Rumor has it that former Warriors and former Proteas Interim coach, Malibongwe Maketa has taken over the reigns. Regardless of who the new coach will be, they’ll have a massive assignment ahead of them. An assignment that can go two ways in that the side can go back to struggling the way it did before Coach Shukri took over or it can maintain its standard from coach Shukri’s time.

Anyone who follows the SA U19 side closely will recall how the side was struggling before Coach Shukri took over. The term was marked by an away and home series loss to Bangladesh. It might actually be a great thing if coach Mali is appointed as the new coach because he was there with coach Shukri and that would allow for some continuity in the side.

It is unfortunate that a lot of things in SA cricket are always kept under wraps. Small things such as U19 camps are made top secret which makes it very hard for people who follow the team to be clued up. The team is said to have had a few camps building up to a series in Bangladesh. This series will be in preparation for the World Cup that will be in Bangladesh. A World Cup in the sub-continent generally means one thing, SPIN.! You need to have good spinners and have players who can play spin well.

It will be interesting to see who gets picked for this series. There are a number of questions the selectors may need to answer as far as selection is concerned. They would’ve been paying very close attention to the last Cubs week played.

Having followed a few of the U19 boys and Cubs week, there are some boys I’d say are guaranteed to tour unless age is against them. Players like Romashan Pillay and Richard Seletswane, who have been scoring dozens of runs throughout the season. Someone like Kwena Maphaka, who has been terrorising batters and is most likely to lead the bowling attack. It will,however, be interesting to see who the selectors go for. I mean, I’ve seen an in form Ruan Terblanche and Sine Qeshile lose out on a World Cup spot. One can never be really sure how or what the selectors think. Could they take both Zuma and Pretorius? Who would be first choice keeper?

My XI would be;

1.L Pretorius (Wk)

2.T Gazide

3.R Pillay

4.R Seletswane

5.D Marais

6.J James(c)

7.R Norton

8.T Luus

9.E Gangat

10.Potsane

11.K Maphaka

Who gets picked will, obviously, depend on a number of factors. Things like age, injury and form will be taken into account.