The KFC Mini-Cricket programme kicked off at the Easterns Cricket union in Benoni with the all-important annual KFC Mini-Cricket Provincial Seminar on the 17th of September in the afternoon.
The KFC Mini-Cricket Easterns Seminar welcomed all the volunteers, administrators, and key stakeholders of the programme who met to strategize the 2020/2021 KFC Mini-Cricket season which has been called the season of “Imvuselelo” or “Recovery”.
One of the guest speakers for the event was East Rand’s very own Tumelo Bodibe who is a former player for Easterns Cricket and is currently the assistant coach for Border Cricket in East London.
“The KFC Mini-Cricket programme is a programme that is very close to me as it gave me my first cricketing experience and introduced me to the game which I now coach. To all the coaches and volunteers present, continue working hard, your hard work grows the game and provides future players and coaches.” Bodibe commented
Bodibe was joined by a fellow guest speaker who is a former player and now the current Easterns head coach Sandile Masengemi who started his cricket journey through the KFC Mini-Cricket programme.
“I remember playing cricket for the first time through the Mini-Cricket programme, before that I had played soccer like most boys in the township. I realised I could play a bit and that was the beginning of my cricket journey which led me to play professionally and serve the game as a coach. The advice I would give the coaches here is to keep serving the kids and love what you do. He stressed that it is at the KFC Mini-Cricket programmes where talent is sourced to nurture up the different age groups to build the future Proteas team,” Masengemi commented.
“The KFC Mini-Cricket programme not only gets kids active but also aims to improve coaches,” said Easterns coaching education manager, Israel Hlengani. He stressed to the volunteers and coaches present the importance of the fundamentals of coaching through a detailed presentation. He also encouraged the coaches to make use of Cricket SA’s online resources and tools programmes that have been made available specifically to further improve their coaching skills.
