Indoor Cricket EP are all set to host the country’s leading men’s, women’s and U21 players in the Indoor Cricket Nationals in Gqeberha, which start on Monday and finish next Saturday.
This top-tier action will take place at the Metro Indoor Sports facility in Kabega.
With EP regarded as one of the top three competitive provinces, Indoor Cricket EP (Icep) president Kenneth Snape is confident the Nelson Mandela Bay teams will do well in the tournament, especially with home ground advantage.
“We are excited to host the event, which comes our way every four years,” Snape said.
“With guys coming from other provinces to play, this is how we check our game against theirs to keep everything going competition-wise.
“Luckily for EP, we have very talented cricketers, and we are in the top three.
“Our U21 side are going to be a big surprise to the open age category.
“They could take a couple of points away from unsuspecting sides thinking they are an easy side to beat.
“Our men’s side will definitely finish in the top two, and our ladies’ side, seeing that there are three sides, we hope for them to finish first and second.
“For our men’s B side, we hope to get a bronze medal out of them.”
Snape said preparations for the tournament had gone well.
“We have actually been lucky to get a main sponsor on board for our men’s open side.
“We have two sides in the men’s competition, and they will be sponsored by Isuzu. So, it’s a new situation; we don’t normally get sponsors.
“We have four sides in the tournament. There are A and B sides in the men’s open league, which is an any age category, and then we have an U21 side for the junior men, plus an open ladies’ side.”
As a growing sport that continues to fight for recognition, Snape said a lot more needed to be done to develop the sport.
He said Indoor Cricket EP had organised a junior camp which would run during the school holidays from July 14-17.
“We have invited some of the schools to send individual players, and we have also sent it out on our Facebook page to get a lot of new youngsters in for our junior sides.
“We have a very strong group of juniors. At U10 and U12, we are very strong.
“The U14s are semi-strong, and the U16 and U18s go on their school tours on holidays when our tournaments are on.
“We need to get the players who don’t go on tours, who are not in the first team. We need to get those players for indoor cricket.”
Two weeks after the Gqeberha nationals, Indoor Cricket EP’s over 30s, 40s, and 50s sides will compete in Pretoria.
“The over 50s will try to win it for the fourth time in a row, and the over 40s were runners-up last year.
“The over 30s also lost in the final.
“So, we have very strong sides in the different tournaments,” Snape said.
The opening ceremony is on Sunday and all of the games will be streamed live on the Icep YouTube channel.
The Herald
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