Once again St David’s FASKEN Time Cricket Festival 2023 is taking place from the 31st August to the 3rd September at St Davids.
Overview:
The first St David’s FASKEN Time Cricket Festival was held in 2017, and it is fair to say that some 6 years later it has evolved superbly well and has come a very long way. In some ways, cricket itself is now 6 years later a hugely different game around the world, and sadly ‘time cricket’ matches and more specifically Test Matches, have diminished world-wide by mainly administrators and marketers who are moving towards the more lucrative and many different T20 leagues around the world. In South Africa, where it was not too long ago that we were the Number 1 Test playing nation in the world – we now sit with only a handful of Test Matches to come over the coming years, which is devastating for our young cricketers who need this format of the game to grow and to develop themselves into the finished product. There is not one current international player that does not still want to play Test Cricket and make a mark, and there is not one of them who does not believe that as a young boy it was crucial for them to learn their trade and to develop their game through time cricket. Only ‘time’ will however tell what the unintended consequences will be with the move towards more lucrative leagues – but in the meantime as custodians of game we will as much as possible be trying to do the ‘right things’ for our young cricketers…
‘Time Cricket’ for those who are not necessarily purists of the game or familiar with such, is cricket played without hardly any limitations or restrictions – and is also cricket played over at least a two-day period. ‘Time Cricket’ is without a doubt the real breeding ground for all future young cricketers and is a format that seriously ‘tests’ all cricketers both mentally and physically. In the world of cricket, most current and past world class or international ‘limited overs’ playing cricketers, have been brought up and have established themselves as top cricketers by honing their skills in the game of ‘Time Cricket.’ Unfortunately, as alluded to above, over recent times our young cricketers have been fed mainly a diet of only ‘Limited Overs’ cricket and ‘T20’ cricket – making it that much tougher for them to adapt and to grow their technical and mental games in the future at the higher level. One of St David’s objectives with the FASKEN Time Cricket Festival, is to offer our cricketers a different opportunity and a different taste of what this wonderful game of cricket has to offer. At the same time, by playing time cricket – it will challenge and frustrate these youngsters towards all sorts of quite different cricket skills and life skills.
As a festival, we are inundated each year with teams, schools, and coaches wanting to join this unique festival, which shows that there is a desperate need for this format as coaches fully understand what their players need to develop. This year we have once again settled on inviting just twelves top teams from around the country to join us, to maintain the standards and to not be too widely spread.
All twelve of the invited teams immediately accepted our invitation, and so the participating schoolsare ourselves the hosts St David’s Marist Inanda – along with St Stithians College, Maritzburg College, St Andrews School, King Edward VII School, Clifton School, Waterkloof Hoërskool, Paul Roos Gim, Jeppe High School, St Johns College, Noordheuwel Hoërskool, and a Lions TAP XI made up of many of the top young U17-U19 local players.
Hard work and smart work, beats talent every single day, especially when talent doesn’t work hard enough or doesn’t make smart enough decisions…
DAVE NOSWORTHY
St David’s Marist Inanda – Director of Cricket