For this week’s IG Live it was only fitting that we have guests from the Cricket South Africa Awards that took place at Vodaworld in Midrand, honouring the stars of the green and gold who put in the hard yards during in the past year.
The gala ceremony, was headlined as “A Summer to Celebrate” and it was the first in-person event since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Proteas Woman bowler Nonkululeko Mlaba was one of the big winners in the women’s awards when she won the T20 Cricketer of the Year award along with the Player’s Player of the Year award.
15-year-old wicketkeeper sensation Karabo Meso won the CSA U19 Women’s Player of the Year and both Mlaba and Meso joined gsport writer Lonwabo Nkohla for a chat.
Reflecting on the memorable wins at the awards Mlaba says, “I don’t want to lie the Player’s Player of the Year award made me realize that my team believe in me. They see that I’m putting in the hard work. Whatever made them vote for me I’m just going to work hard. I’m playing with the best players in the world so that recognition meant a lot.
“It meant a lot to me. Starting cricket in grade 2 at a young age, I never thought there are U19 World Cups, I thought it was just KFC Mini Cricket but thank you as well to management at the World Cup.”
Lefty, as she is affectionately known, says it’s been a fantastic year for her, “So far, it’s been ups and downs but mostly incredible journey. It’s all hard work, being number two in the world I won’t take that for granted, especially for someone coming from a township someone who never went to English High Schools, if I may say. Just dedication and hard work.”
On the books it was a fantastic season for her as she rocketed up to the top of the T20 bowling rankings and is currently second in the world. The 23-year-old from KwaMashu is still gunning for more.
“I’ve always wanted to the best bowler in the world. I’m not where I want to be but I’m still aiming for that number 1 spot. I just need to work harder.”
South Africa U19 women’s cricket team wicket keeper, Karabo Meso, grabbed headlines throughout the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup on home soil, which led to her inclusion in the Team of the Tournament. She was delighted to be interviewed alongside one of the players she looks up to.
“It’s great because I also look up to her because she also plays for the Proteas and that’s one of my goals. Not everyone is in the situation that I’m in so I’m grateful that I get to be in this position.”
The 15-year-old who hails from Rockville, Soweto, says cricket wasn’t really her first love: “Cricket wasn’t really my thing, I’m grateful to my parents for pushing me. I am where I am because of my commitment and also because of the people around me believing in me.”
Mlaba, a 23-year-old who hails from KwaMashu shares a similar story to Karabo, of not really resonating with the sport at first, “I didn’t know anything about cricket as well. As soon as I moved to Ntuzuma, my brother and sister were playing cricket and I joined them. I played for fun because I didn’t want to be left alone.
On the state of cricket in the township when she started playing Mlaba says, “For guys it’s better but for women it’s still tough, it was hard for us to get a proper training ground. When I started, we played cricket on a Netball court. Sometimes we couldn’t train because they’d be playing a netball game on the same pitch. It was so difficult. Mostly in the townships it’s all about soccer and most recently Rugby. I’m not sure if the growth of cricket is getting to the townships too.”
Meso also shared her experiences of playing in the inaugural ICC U19 T20 World Cup: “It felt great playing at home, even though it was hard work behind the scenes. I’m not done yet, still more World Cups and still more things to achieve.”
As they prepared for the showpiece on home soil the SA U19s were mentored by the legends of the game, Mignon du Preez and Trisha Chetty. “Mignon used to come everyday and shared her experiences of playing in different World Cups. She said we should cherish every moment of the world cu. It felt unreal. I took the advice and it helped throughout the World Cup.”
Click on the link to watch the full IG Live: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cuo4toysJeC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==