Volume 30 – August 2018 Northerns Cricket Union SuperSport Park INTRODUCTION Centurion Welcome to the first edition of The Leading Edge for the new season PO Box 7706 2018/2019. This promises to be yet another good season where we see lot of developments, new exciting initiatives by NCU to take Centurion , 0046 cricket on a higher level. The achievements that we had last season 012 663 1005 is something of the past and we now focusing on how we can better the past success. 012 663 3517 [email protected] Different strategies and new initiatives are some of the key elements [email protected] that have highlighted the preparation of the new season and we trust that the amount of hard work that has been put in by everyone in preparation of the new season will pay dividends comes the end of CONTENTS season. Page 1 KFC Mini Cricket programme has already kicked off with the bang Introduction where another successful Provincial Seminar was held on the 10th of August 2018 here at Superport Park. What a great evening it was and thank you to all 105 coaches and Page 2 volunteers who made it possible. The coaching clinics and the local festivals are running in full steam KFC Mini Cricket and this is part of the preparation leading up to the Provincial Festival which takes place on Saturday 08 September 2018. Page 3 – 4 Framework Coaching Reports The Framework Coaches have been hard at work with their identified squads in preparing them for the trials. Different coaching camps were conducted with an aim of sharpening the specific skills for specific Page 5 players. It is also pleasing to see that most of the identified players are now on the PV 1 system. We Special Feature congratulate all the Northerns players that made the Titans Regional Camp and those who progressed Page 6 to the National u17 Camp. We also salute Gideon Peter and Curtis Campher for cracking the nod on the SA U19 squad that toured England. Visualization: The Key To Cricket Success. We give you a special feature article as we congratulate our CEO Dr Jacques Faul on achieving his Page 7 doctorate in economic management science. This shows the amount of hard work he has done academically, and this rubs off beautifully on his leadership to our organization. Club Cricket How can we forget the Coaches who are doing the brilliant work in Schools, Clubs, Academies, Page 8 Hubs/RPC etc. We have put together some interesting articles that will assist them in understanding Infuse Your Team With Passion their players whenever they are doing their pre-match routines such as visualization etc. We also look Page 9 at how the Coaches can infuse their teams with passion. This is a very insightful and well put together article and it should be a good read. We also look at the last coaching article that gives insight on how Titans’ Pipeline Simple Recipe Key To Coaches can identity traits of a successful player. Continued Success! The preparations for the new season within the Club cricket space has been going accordingly and we Page 10 certainly looking forward to another great season ahead. The amount of work that has been done on the NCU Launches Maxi Cricket pitches as part of preparation has been magnificent. Page 11 We are extremely excited to introduce Little Titans MAXI Cricket this season. This is one of the initiatives Personality Traits Of A Successful Player that we came up with in order to grow the interest of cricket within our region. Page 12 Recognition Page The regular feature page where we recognize various achievements of our colleagues is also part of the package for this issue. Page 13 Multiply Titans Unveil 2018/19 Limited- The Multiply Titans have unveiled their new white ball kit and we trust it will continue to bring all the successes that the team has had over the past seasons. We also wish the team all the best as they Overs Kit embark on a tour to Sychelles as part of the pre-season preparation and growing the Titans Brand. Page 14 Maxi Cricket Flyer Let’s Play! Page 2 Northerns cricket Union hosted another successful KFC Mini Cricket Provincial Festival on the 10th of August 2018 at SuperSport Park with 105 delegates attending from various mini cricket areas around Tshwane. The theme of the Seminar was “Taking Stock”. It was a day where coaches from different regions where brought together to be thanked for their contributions towards a successful mini cricket program we are running, it was also an opportunity to further motivate the delegates to go back and do some more good work as they look at what resources they have and how they can use them to the best of their abilities. A big thank you goes to all delegates who were in attendance and a special thanks to all our esteemed guests, NCU President Mr Tebogo Siko, NCU Amateur Manager Johan Muller, Inspirational speaker Mr Johnny Phillander, Motivational Speaker Mr Gerhard Viljoe, CSA Mass participation Coordinator Mrs Buhle Motshegoa and Play maker’s representatives Brian Radebe, Taryn Christie, Bojorn Oostehuizen and Taki Simeli, Former Titans Captain Pierre Joubert and Comedian for entertainment Thabiso Mhlongo. COACHING CLINICS 2 Coaching Clinics where conducted at a new area Oliven and East Side Primary School (South East and North West & Central Zone) The Oliven Course took Place on the 24th of May and 20 Teachers were in attendance. They enjoyed the course as it was new thing for them and they looking forward to use thknowledge acquired to start up cricket at their respective schools. South East and North West & Central Zone Clinic took place on the 4th of August where 54 coaches attended, and they enjoyed getting new coaching tools that will help them become better coaches to their teams. Local Festivals The North West & Central Regions hosted their Festival where it attracted 380 players and 60 coaches. The festival was hosted at Laerskool Unifees and it was a great success. The second festival was hosted in the Atteridgeville Zone where 200 players and 22 coaches attended. They had lot of fun with the games being played and some action Zones, it was a day of great success hosted at Masopha Oval. This year we will be targeting 1500 kids for our Provincial Festival which is similar to the number we had last year. Page 3 ONKE MTSIBA : UNDER 13 REPORT The Northerns u13 Framework squad has had 2 training camps over the months of July The squad consists of players from 12 different schools and Hubs. The first was at Mamelodi Cricket Club which was a skills and middles session camp, this was a great opportunity for some of the city players to experience the training facilities, all the players had played at the Mamelodi Oval but have never had the chance to actually practice there. The second Camp was at Laudium Cricket Club. This was a middle and for the players to sharpen their match skills ahead of the school’s season. It was attended mostly by HUB players as other players had school camps. The next phase is to conduct more one on ones for each player, attend their school matches to track performance which leads to the trials. PETER HAROLD: UNDER 15 & UNDER 17 REPORT The biggest news within our programme is that Thabang Khumalo will take over as head of the framework as Peter Harold has been moved to the Senior Provincial team. He has formed part of the NCU structure for a very long time as both player and coach and it will be an exciting time for him and the players. The middle of the year brings its challenges in there being exams included in this period. School teams are gearing up for the upcoming season and there are various tours that take place in the July holidays for most of our identified squad. Ten of our players were invited to attend the CSA U17 Regional Camp which was held at the Centre of Excellence. They were: Ximus du Plooy, Tristan JV Rensburg, Reynecke Shaikh, Christiaan Oberholzer, Thabiso Motubatsi, Om Thakkar, Wisani Mushwana, Sibusiso Maseko, Wald Truter, Dihan Bekker and Hanu Viljoen. A hearty congratulation to these boys for their achievement. It was quiet on the training front but we managed to do a very important exercise in this period. The MAD foundation has signed an agreement with CSA to do life skills training with all the identified players. The players and their parents (and the coaches) filled in a comprehensive survey and this will now be used as a guide as to how to help each player enhance their mental skills. Everyone is really looking forward to the programme and seeing the positive impact it will have on the players. The Pretoria league is fast approaching and district trials are also coming up. We wish all our players a great season ahead and look forward to seeing plenty of landmark performances this season. MARTELIZE VAN DER MERWE: U19 GIRLS AND SENIOR WOMEN REPORT The girls cricket program started their off-season program in May with 56 identified players from u13 to u19’s, with the focus not just on fundamentals and technique, but also to have more tactical discussion with the girls. First round of trials, of which it was nets, were held a week after the schools re-opened in July. Both the u13 and u16 age groups then had a second round of trials in August where two squads from each age group played a 35 over and 40 over match respectively.