Gareth Mason

The Super Rugby season is finally here and it’s going to be an exciting tournament with all teams fighting to become Super Rugby Champions. The SA teams will be fighting hard to prove a point that we are a great rugby Nation, with the teams looking good it will be interesting to see how they play in this tournament. Also with the pressure knowing that one of the SA teams will be eliminated for the Southern Kings so the teams will be giving it there everything in order for them to be safe.

With the Lions winning the Currie Cup it will be interesting to see how they perform in the tournament, I think they are going to be a force to be reckoned with and I hope they give it there all as well as the other SA teams.

As a Sharks supporter I really hope that The Sharks play well this season. I was a bit worried about them in the Currie Cup, I found that they didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that they made but it’s a new year and I hope they give it there best and do well this year.

A lot of the Australian and New Zealand teams have had a lot of transfers for example Sonny Williams moving to the Chiefs, Weepu as well as Nonu have moved to the Blues and James O’Conner has moved to the Melbourne Rebels too, so many changes have been made down under and will be great to see how they all do in there teams.

Let’s not forget South Africa’s own Sarel Pretorius has moved to the Waratahs and I believe he is going to make a huge impact there because he is a Brilliant scrum half and did very well in last years Super Rugby tournament so I also think he is going to be another force to be reckoned with.

With all these Changes in the Tournament I think its going to make the tournament very interesting and I Hope that our SA teams do extremely well. Super Rugby is always great to watch and I’m really excited to see how this tournament goes.

Can’t wait for the Bulls vs Sharks game I think it’s going to be an awesome game and I hope the Sharks come out with a great win.

Good Luck to all the teams!!!

What an unbelievable
finish to a great T20 game. Final over wins the game and I can’t believe it
because we didn’t play that well but what a fight back it was. I have to say
again we must give credit to Johan Botha for his bowling, he once again slowed
the game down and helped us win. Great last over by Merchant de Lange he bowled
absolutely superb however the no ball gave me a scare but he pulled it through
so well done to him.

Our Batting
was average we started rusty and then came back and then went rusty again, we
need to be more consistent. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and I
hope we can get it together for Saturday’s first ODI. Dale Steyn and Kallis are
returning so that will bring some strength to the team with both batting and
bowling.

Alan Donald
needs to work with our bowlers because they aren’t bowling the correct length
and a lot of the balls are on the leg side which is getting punished. In one of
Morne Morkel’s over’s he bowled one great ball then a bad one and then again a
good one then a bad one they need to concentrate on there bowling and they have
to be more consistent.

Gary Kirsten
needs to sit down with AB and help him and give him advice because at the toss he’s
not always sure on what to do. He showed improvement today which I was glad to
see. He captained under pressure and didn’t do a bad job at it.

The discipline
in the team doesn’t seem to be there. I’m concerned about all this and I really
hope we improve. I have said it many times we are a good team and have the
ability to win which we showed at the end of the game today but we need to
start concentrating on our weaknesses because teams are starting to figure us
out a bit.

The ODI games
are going to be great and I hope we can win the series. NZ are fighting hard
and we are going to have to bring our A game.

T20 Cricket
at it’s best!!!

Richard Levi has definitely made a name for himself after his brilliant knock on Sunday. Seconds after his innings four IPL franchises where after him starting at $50 000. Mumbai Indians were leading the race until now the latest price was from Pune Warriors for US $400 000 for a two year contract.

About 2 months ago he was a provincial player now he is an international star. Let’s just hope he can keep it up. I’m Looking forward to tomorrow’s game to see if he can play another good innings. Will be really great if he does but you never know what could happen.

He’s coming home after the T20 series to play for the Cobra’s in the Mi Way T20 Challenge, I’m sorry he’s not in the ODI squad but what I think the selectors are doing is not to throw him straight into the deep end just yet because he is still new and they maybe want him to gain a bit more experience in the ODI format with the Cape Cobra’s.

David Warner of Australia is a great example he started first in T20 Cricket the made his way into the ODI Squad and now he making a name for himself in Test cricket so I think they are taking it slowly with Levi just so that he can grow a bit more and maybe gain more experience.

If I was a selector I would let him play in this ODI series just because he has played well against the NZ bowlers, also because he has an idea of the pitches there and also to give him some experience in the ODI format. I’m glad SA Cricket now has a player like him because I think he is going to help us out a lot and with his strength the runs are going to come.

Will be interesting to see how his career develops in the future.

Whether you love or Hate him, you can’t deny that he was a brilliant player of the game. Ricky Ponting called it quits on his ODI Career today. He was one best batsmen in ODI cricket and also one of the best fielders. Jonty Rhode and Ponting always had competition to see who would get the most runs outs or take the most catches when we played a series there or when they played us at home which was always great to watch. He always gave it his all and Australian cricket will miss him.

I had the pleasure of meeting him in 2002 when SA A played Australia in a warm up 4 day Test game in Port Elizabeth. He is a great person and meeting all the Australians was an absolute privilege. Steve Waugh was still the captain then and they were very good to me. I will never forget that weekend they played here.

Ricky led his team to two World Cup wins in 2003 and 2007. He’s played over 375 ODI games for Australia and was the longest reigning ODI captain for Australia, he started captaining the team in 2003 and stopped in 2011.

Here are his ODI stats

Ponting is a legend and he will be missed by his teammates and fans. He still plans to play Test cricket till the 2013 Ashes series then I think he will retire.

Johan Botha said earlier today that there are still things that the team needs to improve on. I have to agree with him even though Levi’s innings was superb, there were still a lot of problems out in the field which Botha had mentioned.

I think some of us forgot that he also had a big part in the game with his bowling figures of 1 – 22 which is brilliant in a T20 match. At one stage NZ were looking very strong then Botha’s bowling helped us out a lot. So he also deserves some of the credit.

We were once very well known for our fielding but at the moment it’s not the same as it use to be and that must change. I find the players are slow at receiving the ball and also slow at throwing it back to the keeper or bowler and with them doing that it will then give the opposition a chance to take an extra run due to poor fielding. So I really hope that the coaching staff focuses a lot on that because that will change the game a lot.

It will be very interesting to see how the game turns out because it’s going to be like a final and we all know how they go. It would really be grate if we could win the series because it will bring a lot of confidence to the team and I hope the problems that we have gets worked on.

The side is looking good at the moment however I would still have Rusty Theron in the team I don’t know why he was left out. He didn’t bowl to bad in the 1^st game so I hope they give him another chance and maybe rest Lonwabo because he seems to be battling at the moment and a games rest might help him a bit.

It’s going to be a great game and I hope that we play well. Good Luck SA

Well Done Richard Levi on breaking T20 records for hitting the Most Sixes in a International T20 Game and scoring the fastest 100 in a International T20 game. Was really a great innings to watch. I’m sure you definitely sealed your position in the team. Congrats also on being man of the match after that innings you deserved it.

The Protea’s improved a lot after Friday’s defeat. The bowling was a little better but I still think there’s improvement that needs to be made. The choices AB made with his bowlers I thought was clever by changing them around because it never let the NZ batsmen settle with one bowler, so i was glad to see that there was improvement with that.

Fielding wasn’t up to standards for me and I hope that improves. I still think AB should be out on the in the field because he’s one of the best fielders in the world and I think it will benefit us a lot with him fielding again. The batting was better as we saw in the game Levi was brilliant and so was AB who kept calm at the other end which gave Levi more confidence to play his natural game.

Overall I’m happy with the win and now the T20 series is levelled 1 – 1 so Wednesday’s game is going to be a great one. I hope to see the same from SA but we never know what can happen all I know is that is going to be a great game.

The Protea’s weren’t looking good today. Captain AB was looking
puzzled out there on the field which isn’t good. To me it didn’t look like we
did our homework, because at the toss AB wasn’t even sure about what he was
going to do if he had won it. I know he is still new to the job and he has a
lot of pressure behind him but as captain you must at least have an idea on
these types of things. NZ pitches are very different from ours so we need to be
more prepared for there type of pitch.

Our batting was all over the place and the highest scorer
was JP with 40. It was sad that Amla go run out because he looked like he was
in good form and if he wasn’t run out it could have changed the game a bit.
Colin Ingram trying to double step Nathan McCullum after only facing 3 or 4
balls I found was very silly because the ball was turning alot and he didn’t
even see it, so to me he threw his wicket away. Justin Ontong hit 4 great sixes
but he was lucky to still be there because the umpire made a mistake not given
him out because he actually did nick the ball and the snicker showed that there
was a bit of bat involved. So we were bit lucky there.

If I was AB I would have saved Rusty Theron for the last
over because his bowling wasn’t too bad and he is very well known for bowling
at the death for the Chevrolet Warriors. Rusty could have got 2 wickets today
with a LBW shout. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t review it. They didn’t seem
to review anything today I don’t know if that was a decision made by both teams
or if they just didn’t review it cause they were scared that it was going to be
a waste which it wouldn’t of been because in was clearly out which they showed
on the replay. Lonwabo didn’t have a great day bowling today, everyone’s not
perfect you have your good days and your bad days I just hope he bowls better
on Sunday.

There is alot of work that needs to be done. So we are going
to have to work on our weaknesses and improve on them ahead of the 2^nd
T20 game on Sunday. We have a good team which has the ability to play well they
just need to work on a few things then we will be there.

I was watching the highlights of the Pakistan vs England cricket
game and I was wondering about the English cricket squad, 7 of there players were born
in South Africa and some of them are England’s key players too

Here are some of the players that went on tour to play Pakistan

What if those players who were born in SA played for the Protea’s?
 I was wondering what our team would be
like then, because at least 4 or 5 of them are England’s Keys players.

Here are a few Stats of the 5 key players in my opinion in the
English Squad who were born in SA

Andrew Strauss

Batting and
fielding averages

Kevin Pieterson

Batting and
fielding averages

Jonathan Trott

Batting and
fielding averages

Matt Prior

Batting and
fielding averages

Craig Kieswetter

Batting and fielding averages

Just Imagine if these players were in our SA cricket team we would
be really strong because they are all very good players and some have the stats
to prove it. Obviously some of them where bought up in England but Pieterson
and Trott both played provincial cricket here and I think they would have made
a big impact in our team.

I’ve got nothing against these players they just thought that they
didn’t have a chance to play for the Protea’s so they went to England to further
there career which they have done. There are a lot more SA players in England
playing county cricket because they find it hard to get into the SA squad which
I have to respect because there dream is to play international cricket and if
they can’t get far in cricket here then they will go else where to play.

It’s good to see that we produce great cricketers but also sad
that they don’t play for us. I hope from now on and in the future we take good care of our cricketers otherwise we will keep loosing them to England’s
World XI team.

F

These days there are a lot of youngsters who want to play
sport which I think is awesome because they can learn so much from playing
sport no matter what sport it is. It’s great to see that they are eager to
participate.

Sport teaches you how to work together as a team, it will teach
you how to be confident and it will also teach you good sportsmanship which
will help you so much in the sporting world which will also help them grow as
youngsters.

A lot of children these days want to be like there hero’s
that they see on TV and it’s really great to see them learn from them as players.
I remember when I was younger my sporting hero was Shaun Pollock and I would
try to copy his bowling and batting actions. Watching him play cricket taught
me a lot on how to go about the game and it was really great watching him play
cricket, he was definitely one of the best.

Children having a role model is great because it helps them
become more eager to play the sport, whether its there sporting hero on TV or
even there parents who help them achieve what they want. It’s great because
they can learn so much from them. My dad has taught me so much about cricket
even though he has hardly played the game and I’m very grateful for that.

Last week while I was coaching my team who played there
first match of the year. They went on to win the game and they were so proud to
win there first game. They are a U/10 team and most of them haven’t played
together so for me as a coach it was great to see them win the game as a team
and be so proud about it, some of them couldn’t stop talking about it at the
next practice. I was also very proud, because I only started coaching at the
end of last year so it was also my first win too which was really great to be
apart of.

So having them being so passionate about sport is great
because it gives them an opportunity to do something they love. That’s why Bakers
Mini Cricket which is now called KFC Mini cricket is so great because it
teaches these youngsters the basics of cricket and gives them the idea of how
to play the sport and as they get older they learn more and more. The same with
rugby, soccer, tennis, golf etc, they all have academy’s that teaches all these
kids the basics of sport and I just hope it keeps on growing because I believe
that the younger they learn how to play the better they will evolve as they get
older. So hats off to the people out there helping there kids to play sport
because I think it will benefit them as they get older.

I’m really happy I’ve played the sport, because it has
taught me so much and now with coaching I’m still learning more because as I
help these youngster I  have to learn how
to be patient and many others things. So you never stop learning and I really
hope that these youngsters stay positive because they are our future and you
never know they could be the next Jacques Kallis or Shaun Pollock so they must
try not to give up on there dreams.

T20 Cricket is growing each year and everyone wants to play it, all cricketing countries are creating T20 Tournaments and it is becoming really popular. T20 Cricket has bought so many fans to the stadiums and the game is very well supported. T20 cricket is great to watch anywhere whether it’s at the stadium or whether you are at home watching it on TV either way its very exciting to watch.

Although T20 cricket has proven to be successful, it has been argued that since T20 encourages far from technical cricket, youngsters wanting to pick up the game will be misguided into believing that cricket is all about trying to hit 6s and 4s no matter how you do it. There is a lot of truth in this but I personally enjoy watching T20 cricket and even though players hit 4s and 6s they will still play great shots to get these boundaries. If there is one negative thing i had to say about T20 cricket is that some players just do it for the money. Theres nothing wrong with playing the game for the money but i think that they should do it for both the money and the love of the game.

In South Africa we have The Standard Bank Pro 20 Series which gets underway on the 15th of February and I think its going to be a fantastic tournament. So many players have been noticed due to T20 cricket for example, Rusty Theron who is a great bowler at the death, he has helped the Warriors win many games due to his great bowling at the death. So I think T20 cricket is a great game and I hope keeps on growing.

The one T20 tournament everyone knows about is the IPL. The IPL is a T20 tournament that is extremely exiting and is becoming extremely popluar by the year. The IPL buys alot of players who are from all over the world which makes the tournament exciting having all different players from different nations playing in the tournament, Offcourse the teams have alot of Indians in them but it also has players from other countries. It’s a really exciting tournament which has many famous cricketers and also upcoming cricketers playing in it and it gives them all a chance to enjoy themselves and also to be noticed by there countries which can chose these players to play in the T20 World Cup.

The T20 World Cup is this year and that’s going to be exiting to watch because all the cricketing countries have great T20 players who play extremely well and it will make the games exciting watching everyone play to be the best in the world at T20 Cricket.

T20 cricket is really exciting to watch and I think it’s just going to keep on growing because of all the excitement in it. Some people Like it some people don’t but I personally think its proving to be a great success and I hope it gets even more popular in the years to come.