The domestic season is truly underway
3 October 2008
The domestic season is truly underway and there have been some wonderful performances to date. Imran Khan and his Dolphins teammate Jon Kent have played some wonderful innings’ and Morne Morkel has shown his allround capabilities with both bat and ball. I have long been of the opinion that it is imperative that our National players play as much domestic cricket as possible. The biggest reason is that it is the only way that the future international cricketers can sharpen their skills – by playing against the best. How will a young player know what it takes to face someone that bowls at 150km/hr at international level if he has not been given the opportunity to do that at Franchise level? Our future success will depend on how we can balance the workload of our National players and still be able to get them to play some Franchise cricket.
SACA has some very interesting programs lined up for all the Franchise players. Part of the responsibility of SACA is to equip players with skills that will assist them with life after cricket. I would like to urge all the players to take these programs seriously, but enjoy doing them. Although cricket is very important to all of us, the playing part is relatively short compared to the duration of our life here on earth and whether we like it or not we will be required to be skilled for life outside of cricket. I believe it will be a very sad day if the only thing that we are remembered for is what we did on the cricket field. I have found that since I have equipped myself for life after cricket it has taken a lot of pressure of my cricket and it has allowed me to play with freedom and enjoyment.
Life is so short that we can only go and enjoy and live everyday to its full potential. This matter was hit home this week when a dear friend and my helicopter instructor Leon Degenaar passed away in a helicopter crash. Leon has been called to higher service. He will be sorely missed, but the impact he had on people will never be forgotten.
May we as cricketers never be forgotten even when our time here on earth is up!!