Leading Edge 2018

With the season almost done and dusted we as DACC had our fair share of up’s and down’s during the past seven months. One of our biggest challenge is to get the players to actively participate in practise sessions, we are always struggling to get the players to the sessions due to either transport or commitment reasons. We also made history by entering the Blind team into the NCU league, although this was short lived due to reasons beyond our control. With many factors contributing to our player base, we make the best of what we have in terms of facilities, availability of players, funds etc. That said we also achieved quite a lot and below are just some players that need mentioning, showing that if you put in the hard work you will plough the rewards: Tiaan de Klerk (Intellectually Impaired) – A 15 year old who is playing in his first season. The dedication and enthusiasm shown by Tiaan is remarkable. We still however have a lot of work to do with Tiaan and various aspects of his game still needs improvement. The spirit in which he plays is really an eye opener for abled players. Heinrich Booysen (Intellectually & Physically impaired) – A 10 year old who is playing in his first season. He truly has a heart of a lion and never gives up although he has a mobility restraint. We have adapted his batting style to assist him better with his movement and it has paid off dividends. He has improved tremendously and will surely be a star in the future. Andro Pelzer (Open player) – a 18 year old who is playing in his second season now. He has improved not only with this bowling but his batting as well, evident in the fact that he will be the Bowler of the Year for DA 3 this season. He works hard at practises and keen on improving his game by asking advice and inputs from coaching staff. His batting also improved tremendously and will soon be in the top 5 of the batting order. Considering that the club participate in the lower leagues, it has been seen from visiting the other club’s grounds that there is funding requirements for most of the clubs. We thought we were the only club struggling financially but it seemsothers are as well. Facilities at once prominent clubs are in a bad state, this may be due to neglect or other factors, but it is visible : Eersterust, Harlequins and Police, just to mention a few. Within the 5th and 6th leagues it is also evident that some clubs are struggling to have teams on the field or even playing venues. With the number of forfeits by other teams due to these reasons it is difficult to establish the standard of their teams. The clubs that do however perform well within the leagues play cricket in good spirits, 1 or 2 incidents took place but were handled at the field of play. Overall cricket is still alive within NCU and the recent allocation of funds to the clubs will definitely make a difference for some and hopefully these clubs will be able to take it up a notch for the new season . This truly was a great initiative by NCU and all the clubs will benefit to ensure the facilities are at a baseline standard. We have our own challenges for the next couple of months before the new season starts and have made it clear that our focus will be on our feeder system. This has been neglected for some reason over the past few years and we want to rectify this. Being who we are we have an obligation to the disabled schools within our jurisdiction to ensure that we play our part in creating future players not only for the club, but for provincial and national level. Definitely Abled Cricket Greetings! Wilson Ramajela Christo Pelzer Head of Coaching DACC Chairman DACC