THE INNER RING AUGUST 2020 | SECOND INNINGS Dear Dolphins family I hope all women had a special day on the 9th of August, on behalf of all men I want to wish you happiness, health, success and prosperity in the years ahead. I also want to thank everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes. I had such a blessed time and am truly grateful. Powerplay During the past few weeks it has been very easy to get pulled into the negative narrative regarding South African sport, and especially cricket. Much like everything in life, cricket can be a very cruel place at times. A gruelling place where every cricketer, coach, umpire, scorer, groundsman and administrator at some point in his/her career will feel hard done by, misunderstood or misjudged. Thankfully, also much like life, these tough times make the good times feel even better. This is probably one of the reasons why we love this sport. I am pretty sure that each one of us can join the narrative with a challenging story of our own, on what feels like the whole world transpired against us to not reach our dreams. Here is a summarised story of how my cricket playing career unfolded… When I picked up a cricket bat for the first time about 34 years ago, cricket was a type of sport and not a political game. Since my first mini-cricket experience my ultimate dream was to represent South Africa. I remember playing in the street with my two older brothers, and the rest of the neighbourhood, with my sister keeping score. On a daily basis a very similar scenario to the Standard Bank TV add would unfold, leading to the famous words… “But mom, it’s a day-night game!”. I remember, even back then, it was extremely competitive with only a limited number of batting opportunities available. THE INNER RING I S S U E : 1 4 According to the Level 2 Coaching course that I did a long time ago, 10,000 hours of training was the benchmark in terms of LTAD (Long term athlete development). I am pretty confident that I passed that mark with flying colours, through endless hours of batting in the nets, hitting bowling machine balls, and countless fitness and fielding sessions. I put in the hard yards and prepared as well as I could, I thought. I had a long playing career (when considering the physical time that passed between my first B-side game and my last First Class match), if you take into consideration that I played my first B-side game for North West in 2003 against Northerns at Supersport Park. I think I was on 24 not out when rain put a stop to proceedings. This was also the last game before the franchise system was created. I then made my first-class debut three years later against Easterns where the first day rained out, in the first innings I got trapped LBW for 14, and the second innings I made 7 not out of a million balls, just defending for a draw. The next day was my List A debut, which rained out with us on 106/3, guess who was due to come in at number six… More than a year later in 2007 I got another game against Namibia, this time opening the batting, and made 32 on a tricky wicket where we got bowled out for 103. I followed it up in the second innings with another average score of 22. We then played ten days later in Mpumalanga where once again I only made 16 and 20. I then played my next game only four and a half years later in 2011 against Northerns, followed by my final game against Northern Cape in 2012 before being dropped for a player that came across from Northerns. A “semi-professional” playing career that spanned almost ten years with endless sacrifices, all whilst studying and working full time since 2005, full of disappointing moments. My final statistics etched forever into Cricinfo history as follows: First Class 5 Matches 10 Innings Highest score 32 Average 15.66 List A 2 Matches 1 Innings Highest score 14 Average 14 The question that you are probably asking at this stage is why did I not just stop playing when everything seemed so negative for such a long time? Ten years of training, rushing between practices and work, studying into the morning hours, ultimately for five First Class opportunities and two List A opportunities… 17 days, of which three rained out! I always believed that I was good enough and that I had the talent. I had all the support from my family and friends, some amazing coaches, administrators and mentors. I was fortunate to get exposed to mini-cricket at a very young age (today KFC Mini-cricket), I played 12 years THE INNER RING I S S U E : 1 4 of schools cricket, interlinked with 15 years of club cricket during which I was fortunate to experience many proud moments. Three times the North West Club batsman of the year, MVP of the North West Premier League, MVP of an international universities tournament in Australia, captain of the winning Pukke team at SASSU, Captain/ Vice-captain of the SA Universities team that won against the MCC Universities in Stellenbosch, and scoring exactly 1000 runs at an average of 100 in my final club season. I also felt like questioning selectors, coaches, captains, administrators, ground staff and umpires, for me not reaching my ultimate goal of becoming a Protea or I can look in the mirror and recognise that there were much better players than me. So many of my talented team mates never even got the opportunity to play one provincial game. I choose to believe that everyone that I experienced along my cricketing journey simply did the best they could, and for that I am extremely grateful. Every administrator, selector, coach, captain, player, umpire, scorer and groundsman work under immense pressure, and we need to be fully aware of that fact. Cricket is an incredibly complex team sport with only 11 spots available for players with the required skillsets, and even then those skillsets change for different conditions or formats. I did not become a Protea player but I am proud that I shared the field with some incredible human beings and some amazing people from all over our rainbow nation. I am actually proud to say the player from Northerns that replaced me was Rassie van der Dussen. At that specific moment I was extremely frustrated, but looking back I have to commend the vision of our coach for making a great call. I am filled with gratitude for a lifetime of cricket playing experiences and most of all for lasting friendships made across all sections of cricket, it has all been worth it! I would strongly recommend cricket to every single kid, not only for the fun, being active and interacting but also for the life lessons it presents. It is a game of immense highs but also very sad lows, a classy century and the next day a golden duck, a gentlemen’s game, but also a very tough game, a game that teaches you resilience, patience, the fact that no one is bigger than the team, and that ultimately the game belongs to all. I salute all cricketers that became Proteas, you represent me and many like me, and I am proud to support you, for you have truly overcome many challenges to get to the pinnacle. Inside the boundary rope Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some profiles of the people behind the scenes, who are walking with me on this incredible journey. I start with our President, Finance manager and Stadium manager. Trust you will find these profiles interesting. THE INNER RING I S S U E : 1 4 FULL NAME BERNARD DLADLA TITLE KZN CRICKET UNION PRESIDENT DATE OF BIRTH 15 JANUARY 1963 HIGH SCHOOL MENZEL HIGH PRIMARY SCHOOL LINDELANI PRIMARY WHY CRICKET? I am in cricket because of Rodney Malamba and Horatius Sokhanyile who organized a cricket coaching course in 1993 which I attended with among others Linda Zondi. I wanted my school the be the first that played cricket in Umlazi. I was always involved in sport as a teacher and wanted my learners to have many sport opportunities. Linda Zondi then recruited me to work in cricket administration. The players and administrators have always availed themselves for community initiatives. I remember vividly one of our supporters (Mr Kok) used to make the stadium roar in support of the Dolphins during the late 80s and 90s. Pity He left Durban. The Dolphins have the most loyal fans. The stadium environment when the Dolphins play is something that I always enjoy. WHY DOLPHINS? We wanted to make a difference in the Dolphins setup, first as a supporter and later as an administrator. Dolphins administration was and still is the best. Dolphins attended and motivated our players during club games. The Dolphins were the first franchise to embrace diversity and had the ‘never say die’ attitude on the field who also have the most loyal supporters. LESSONS LEARNT IN CRICKET ADMINISTRATION The game of cricket has taught me that, one must be patient, tolerant and listen to others. One must listen more as there are many people with good ideas when it comes to the game of cricket. Accept others as I was accepted by the KZNCU cricket family. I appreciate the passion the people have about the Dolphins and cricket in general.