Champions League T20 in India
5 November 2009
The inaugural Champions League T20 in India was an incredible experience, one that I will not forget.
I cannot remember when a team was as excited as the Diamond Eagles team was before we left for India. This was a new experience even for someone like me who has been to India on several occasions. We knew that we were part of something new, real frontier stuff.
Bear in mind that most of the guys in the Eagles team have not even flow business class before in their lives. As we left for India we felt like royalty. India is a very unique place and a very special place to play cricket. I don’t think that there is any other country in the world that is as passionate about cricket as the Indians. This became apparent at our first net practice, as there were hoards of eager youngsters waiting to have a bowl at us. One could quite easily have a net for a whole day and there will always be net bowlers available.
I think most of the guys realised how fortunate we are to live in South Africa. Yes we have our challenges and there is a lot of poverty in South Africa, but what we saw in India is on whole new level. We saw countless families sleeping on the curb under nothing but boxes, children in their hundreds begging for anything that comes their way. We all realised that we are fortunate to live in country like SA and that we as cricketers have a huge responsibility to try and make a difference. Charity does start at home.
The cricket itself was very strong. The Australian teams showed why they dominated world cricket in the last 15 years. NSW became the first winners of the Champions League by beating the very explosive team of Trinidad & Tobago in the final. The two SA teams did very well, with the pick of them being the Cobras.
Everyone will agree that the Champions League T20 was a huge success and being part of it not only made us better cricketers, but more importantly better people.
I wish everyone a very prosperous 2009/2010 season. May all your cricketing dreams come true.