Ken Borland

It says much for the important role that KFC Mini-Cricket played in his journey that Temba Bavuma, having just settled back into home life after the exuberant celebrations of the stirring World Test Championship final, was willing to hop on a plane from Cape Town and spend the day in Polokwane as the special guest for their 2025 National Seminar.

Bavuma’s standing as an inspirational figure amongst the grassroots coaches in this country was obvious. And fully justified after he had led his team to a place no Proteas team, in the words of Captain Kirk, had gone before – the podium of a major ICC event.

Fans of the famous Star Trek series celebrate Kirk as being the epitome of a style of leadership that is inventive, self-confident but inclusive, brave and unselfish. As the captain of the Starship Enterprise, Kirk was in charge of a leadership team that was highly diverse, given that the TV series first came out in the 1960s – there was an Asian, a Russian, a Scotsman, a Vulcan and an African-American woman – Uhuru – with whom he shared the first ever inter-racial kiss on U.S. television.

Bavuma brings many of the same attributes and has also successfully knit together a diverse Proteas team that is starting to reflect the realities of modern South Africa.

Back here on Earth, and more specifically in Mzansi, there are huge socio-economic issues that make Bavuma an outlier, one of the lucky few Black sports stars who have been able to escape the grinding poverty of township life and fulfil his talent.

Bavuma has paid his dues in terms of all the work he has put into his career, but he acknowledged that he needed the support of programs like KFC Mini-Cricket and a bit of luck to now be rightfully praised as someone who has changed the history of South African cricket.

“A lot of everything started with KFC Mini-Cricket,” Bavuma told the star-struck audience. “I was six or seven when I started playing mini-cricket in Langa and it was mostly older ladies doing the coaching back then. But they instilled discipline and the memories and friendships you make as a child stay with us.

“I left Langa when I was 11 or 12 and I’ve led a fairly privileged life from then. But I was back there this weekend and I still stay in touch with a coach like Mark Khoabane, it’s great that he’s still contributing to the system. It all starts at grassroots and I remember when the West Indies came to Langa in 1999, you could actually touch Brian Lara and Curtly Ambrose.

“I would like to find a way to close the gap between schools in Langa and a place like Bishops, for example. Because if the resources are not there for our children, then we are just offering them opportunity. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but it can always be done better.

“From my days at KFC Mini-Cricket, I remember the discipline and how you need to arrive at practice. You’ve got to be brave to go for your dream and to keep going. You must stay true to your passion. And you must have fun,” Bavuma said.

The first Black African batsman to play Test cricket for South Africa became the captain of the team in early 2023, against the West Indies, unfortunately making a pair in his first match as skipper. The armband has kept him on the hop since then.

“Captaincy in South Africa is tough, you have to know politics. First, you have to understand who you are as a person and a cricketer, you have to be comfortable with not having all the answers. It’s about knowing your strengths and what you need to work on.

“Fortunately we have a few leaders in the team: KG Rabada leads through his actions, Kesh Maharaj has a cricket brain you cannot beat and Aiden Markram gets to places in the dressing room that I can’t get to,” Bavuma said.

Former Central Gauteng Lions coach Geoff Toyana, now with Easterns, was the driver for much of Bavuma’s success once his family moved to Johannesburg and he graduated from St David’s Marist. He knows what makes the 35-year-old tick as well as anyone, and the World Test Championship final was an emotional time for Toyana too.

“When Temba was at St David’s, he joined Soweto Cricket Club and that’s when we got close. I was then a selector and assistant coach for Ray Jennings in the 2009 SA U19 team and we spent lots of time together at nets, we bonded. I said to him then that one day he would captain the Lions. I didn’t aim high enough!

“I remember when we met with him at the Lions, he came with a notebook full of his plans. He has always been very thorough and organised. He wanted to bat number four for the Lions, but we still had Neil McKenzie and we said he’ll have to learn from him. I became Lions head coach in 2012 and I backed Temba in all formats, he became a regular in the team.

“When Enoch Nkwe took over as coach in 2018, I told him Temba must be made captain this year. When he was chosen for the national team, I was one of the first people he told – his mother first and then me! It’s been a great privilege knowing him and he says I was more excited than he was, but one of my goals as a coach was to produce a Black African batter for the Proteas,” Toyana told kenborland.com.

It was fitting, then, that Bavuma requested that it be Toyana, and former Lions assistant coach Dumisa Makalima, who picked him up at Polokwane Airport. “Geoff was a coach who gave us a sense of peace. He freed us up and allowed us to express ourselves,” Bavuma said.

Due to the hatred that still infests parts of our society, there has always been a lot of negative noise around Bavuma. But diminutive as he is, Bavuma is a man who stands tallest when times are toughest.

“I’m so proud of him,” Toyana said, “the abuse that little man gets. But he has shown incredible resolve and fight and calmness. He can be really proud of what he did.”

Bavuma is now someone who actively mentors the new generation and he shares how he has managed to overcome the vile, often faceless criticism.

“I don’t make everything personal and I don’t take myself too seriously. I focus on what I can control, which is what is happening in my head and my heart. Anything else, I don’t give too much energy to. But it’s not easy and I’ve seen how it affects the younger guys,” the courageous hero said.

Bavuma has largely done his talking with the bat, and lately it has been shouting out his pedigree as one of the very best. In the last five years, he averages 49.77 in Test cricket; his ODI record is also outstanding: averaging 43.97 at a strike-rate of 87.74.

He plays with a technical assurance which not many other South African batsmen can match.

“Temba is one of the few batsmen gifted with the ability to play the ball late,” Toyana exclusively told kenborland.com. “He still calls me to have a look at his head position from time to time, but his biggest skill is seeing the ball early and playing late. He hits the ball under his eyes.

“And under pressure he stays calm. Like he did at Lord’s, he had to really knuckle down, batting through injury, and he produced something special. It’s huge for the country what Temba and his team have achieved. People are excited about Test cricket again and it will help the whole pipeline, with money hopefully now coming in.”

With the celebrations for the epic World Test Championship win now coming to an end [Wiaan Mulder’s magnificence is rather dominating the limelight now], Bavuma has been able to better process what he and the Proteas have achieved.

“We had a lot of points to prove and a lot to play for at Lord’s. We wanted to do something special for the country and Shukri Conrad and Ashwell Prince had both just lost loved ones. People were having a go at KG Rabada after his controversy. Since then, a lot of beers went down but I think we have a proper perspective of what we’ve done.

“It felt like a home game playing away at Lord’s and we could hear all the different chants from the crowd. When we did our lap of honour, the stadium was still half-full, and to have my family there was so special because cricket takes a lot from them.

“To do it at Lord’s, the home of cricket, was also special, and it was against Australia, the old foes. We couldn’t have scripted it any better. When we came home, I’ve never seen the airport like that and it started to give us a sense of what we had done. It’s been crazy. I’ve just tried to embrace the moment and everything it means. But it will probably take a couple of years before we are properly out of the celebrations.

And then, pointing to The Mace, Bavuma said “That was my biggest motivator, to do something that has not been done before by our country. But to pursue something great or something that has not been done before, you know there is going to be struggle.

“You have to keep finding a way to show up every day, and if you really believe in your dream, and you go for it with all your might, then things will align,” Bavuma said.

“I don’t want to call myself old,” Keshav Maharaj says in a light-hearted aside moments after being named the Proteas Players’ Player of the Year at the recent Cricket South Africa awards evening. But at 34-years-old, the left-arm spinner undoubtedly plays a key role as a figure of wisdom and maturity in a team that is going through a period of transition.

Complicating this time of change for those who play in both red and white-ball formats, as Maharaj does, is the fact that the Test, ODI and T20 squads are all in very different places.

South Africa’s Test team is fourth in the ICC rankings, but is currently in seventh position in the World Test Championship and are seriously short-changed in terms of opportunities to play the five-day format. The ODI team is third in the rankings, boosted by their encouraging semi-final appearance in the 50-over World Cup last year, but questions remain over senior players like Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen and the lure of T20 leagues.

The Proteas recently achieved their best showing in an ICC global event when they reached the final of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies, but they are only ranked sixth in that format, with consistency being their main issue as the squad is constantly rotated.

Maharaj, as one of the leadership inner core (he has led the Proteas in seven ODIs and five T20s), says however that he feels South Africa are holding steady if not progressing, thanks to the refreshing influence of some new talent and the continued drive of the seniors.

“We have a good blend of youth and experience and we are finding a way to navigate not only playing international sport but also the transition period we are obviously in,” Maharaj told sportsboom.com.

“It’s not easy when you’re trying to blood talent, but there’s stability in the core, some continuity, we are finding combinations so we don’t have to suddenly look for those at World Cups. There’s role clarity from the coaches and we have two brilliant leaders in Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram.

“I don’t want to call myself old, but for us older guys it’s not always easy with new families that you see for two weeks and then you’re away for eight weeks. But we still love what we do, we are still motivated, patriotic and passionate about what we can do for the country. That’s what spurs us on.

“So with that senior core and how quickly the youngsters are coming through, it’s encouraging that we are still producing results. And the enjoyment of playing together shows too, we work as one unit, motivated to win in all three formats,” Maharaj said.

In terms of personal motivation, Maharaj is probably the complete left-arm spinner already, but he is constantly at work, tinkering and massaging his game. Dedication and work-ethic are his trademarks and in the last season he took 26 wickets in 17 ODIs, conceding just 4.21 runs-per-over; 13 scalps in 10 T20s at 6.88 runs-per-over; and he was the player of the series in the recent Tests in the West Indies, taking 13 wickets in the two matches, at an average of just 16.07.

“I love what I do and I just love the game, so I am still trying to get better and working really hard. I just keep trying to evolve whether that is mentally or in terms of tactics, or subtle changes to my bowling. That includes my batting even though that is yet to pay dividends and the form comes and goes. In cricket, 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2, that’s the way the game goes,” Maharaj chuckled.

“But I just try to be one step ahead. The easy part is getting here, the hardest thing is to stay here. So it’s not about bowling for two hours in the nets, it’s about those six-hour shifts trying to figure out your game. Because out in the middle you are responsible for your own destiny. You have to self-learn because you are alone in the middle, it’s all you, the batter and the ball.”

The Proteas have arrived in Zimbabwe as world Test champions ahead of their two-match series starting on Saturday, with all-rounder Wiaan Mulder saying the team enjoys a new, deeper bond after Lord’s, but it is something that the newcomers in the squad can also find welcoming.

Only six of the 14-man South Africa squad for the two Tests in Bulawayo were at Lord’s for the epic victory over Australia.

“It was the biggest Test win of our lives, so we had awesome celebrations with each other and our sponsors, before returning to our families and the people that mean the most to us. That reset was important because the World Test Championship final was an extremely high high, it was all a bit of a blur, there was so much adrenaline and I hardly slept for 10 days,” Mulder said this week.

“So to spend a couple of days at home was very important for us to come back to reality. We were treated like royalty before, but that’s not real life. Going from Lord’s, the home of cricket and all the history and tradition, to Bulawayo, I guess will make quite a difference too.

“It’s a new squad with a lot of guys wanting to prove a point, guys who have played so well domestically over the last couple of seasons to get here. So we’re not going to think too much about what happened in the WTC.

“But there’s a spirit in the squad that I’ve not seen before, to be honest. The big difference is our self-image, we now believe. I don’t think we always did believe we could beat the big teams, and there were lots of big moments that made us sore.

“There’s now a very big belief that we can reach those heights again and the young guys coming in believe that too. And we will continue doing it our way. But we’re not being arrogant because we know that we must still put our best foot forward on every ball.

“We’ve had those conversations already, that no matter what team is representing the Proteas, it will be the best team available at that time and we are the world champions. So we will train like we are the best in the world, we won’t be taking any steps back and we want to keep showing the character that means we keep coming back.

“Obviously some of the guys need some rest, but that provides an opportunity for someone else and we will still be pushing the bar as much as we can,” Mulder said.

The 27-year-old said he also wants to build a relationship with his new spot in the batting order – at number three. Things went poorly there for Mulder in the first innings at Lord’s as he came to the crease at the end of the first over, and struggled to 6 off 44 balls in a torrid test for any top-order batsman, let alone a makeshift one.

But he certainly showed mental steel in the second innings as he ensured he did not get ‘stuck’, moving fluently to 27 and helping Aiden Markram lay a crucial solid foundation up top as they added 61 for the second wicket.

“I wouldn’t say I was thrown in the deep end because I always see myself as a batsman. I think I have spent a lot of my career hiding behind wanting to be more of a bowler. I loved getting a chance at three and hopefully I can make it work because it balances the team nicely and I believe I can play in many different situations.

“I hope [coach] Shukri Conrad’s thinking stays the same, but I need to get runs wherever I bat. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career and I don’t think I’ve done as well as I can or as well as Shukri thinks I can.

“But I will give everything I can because batting at three could just be a temporary thing. But hopefully I can fill that role through to the next WTC final. I’ve worked very hard technically on being able to manage the new ball and score runs. The final was only the second time I’ve batted there in Test cricket without a broken hand and I learned a lot.

“I want to be positive and show good intent. The first innings taught me that I need to get into positions to transfer the pressure, that is more important than just trying to survive. It’s important that I have the mindset of looking to score, that’s when I’m at my best and I did that more in the second innings.

“I’m still figuring it out; some people will say that means I’ve been thrown in the deep end, but others would say that’s the best place to learn because you get proof of whether what you’re trying to do will work,” Mulder said.

In terms of his bowling, the right-arm seamer acknowledges that it will take something of a miracle for him to keep up his bowling loads if he becomes settled at number three in the batting line-up.

“Every day I’m trying to work out how I’m going to manage the batting and the bowling, to still be able to bowl 15 overs in a day and bat number three – it’s finding that balance. Few people have been able to do that, even the King, Jacques Kallis, didn’t bowl as many overs when he batted number three.

“But I will always be the fourth bowler, which gives me a chance to step back a bit. That’s the planning at the moment and hopefully I make it very difficult for them to move me back to number seven. I’m 27 now and I really want to put my best foot forward,” Mulder said.

Helping the Central Gauteng Lions star produce his best in Zimbabwe will be stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj, who Mulder says has been a tremendous inspiration for him in his Proteas career.

“Keshav is someone I have really looked up to, since the beginning of my career. Before my first first-class game, he messaged me to congratulate me. He didn’t know me at all, but he reached out and that says it all about him as a person, I so admire him.

“He’s probably our best spinner ever, he knows exactly where each ball needs to go, he’s very calculating and he’s very caring. He’s been my captain at Durban Super Giants and his understanding of the game is very good.

“I tended to focus too much on what was happening in my head, but Keshav has been able to get me more in a routine and doing the things that give you success over a long period.

“I think he’ll be very proud captaining South Africa in a Test match for the first time, it’s been one of his aspirations because it’s the pinnacle of the game. I think he’s going to be a great captain and maybe it will open a door for him because who knows how long Temba Bavuma is going to be around?” Mulder said.

Robyn Searle

The Fidelity Titans captain probably does not get the adulation she deserves after another stellar season in 2023/24. The right-handed opener was the team’s leading run-scorer in both the one-day and T20 competitions, and a model of consistency.

In the 50-over tournament, her tally of 397 runs was second only to Proteas star Tazmin Brits in the overall run-scorers list, while her 233 runs in the T20s was the fifth best nationally. Five half-centuries in 10 innings in the one-dayers left her with an outstanding average of 44.11.

The 27-year-old Searle is an elegant strokeplayer who can score all around the wicket. Born in Johannesburg, she initially played for Gauteng, before joining the University of Pretoria and the Titans.

Paulinah Mashishi

Paulinah Mashishi bowled her off-spin with such skilful nuance last season that she was the joint leading wicket-taker in both the one-day and T20 competitions.

Undoubtedly the banker of the Fidelity Titans attack, the Hammanskraal product took 18 wickets in ten 50-over matches, a tally only matched by Proteas star Nonkululeko Mlaba. Mashishi averaged just 19.11 and conceded only 3.90 runs per over. In the T20s, she also averaged 19 as she took 11 wickets, conceding just 5.38 runs-per-over.

Hailing from the Tshwane University of Technology, Mashishi bowls with a high action and is wonderfully accurate. She was named the Titans player of the season earlier in 2024.

Tebogo Macheke

Identified as a wicketkeeper/batter of much potential, Macheke has played for the SA Emerging team and been invited to senior Proteas camps.

Hailing from Hammanskraal, Macheke averaged 23.25 with the bat in six one-day matches for the Fidelity Titans last season, and scored 108 T20 runs at better than a run-a-ball.

Now 24, Macheke played for the Limpopo Impalas for a couple of seasons, but returned to Northerns in 2022.

Ricea Coetzer

Just 24 years old but a stalwart of the team, Coetzer has been playing for the Fidelity Titans since 2016.

The Titans have been able to take advantage of her accurate spin bowling to restrict opposition batting line-ups, and last season she had an economy rate of 6.77 in T20s and 4.96 in one-day cricket, playing nine matches across the two formats.

But the teacher and former University of Pretoria player has also been known to rip through batting line-ups and in the 2021 Women’s Provincial League in Cape Town she returned the astonishing figures of five for six in 10 overs against the Central Gauteng Lions.

Coetzer is also handy with the bat, with a highest List A score of 70.

Gandhi Jafta

Intellectual prowess and sporting success flow into each other for Gandhi Jafta as this University of Pretoria star combines lecturing and doing her doctorate in Mathematical Statistics with being a key all-rounder for the Fidelity Titans.

Educated at Lilyfontein in East London and making her senior provincial debut for Border as a 16-year-old in 2015, Jafta’s life and career flew to new heights at Tuks. She was named the leading university’s Cricketer of the Year in both 2020 and 2022, and made her debut for the Titans in 2018.

Last season, Jafta excelled with the ball for the Titans in the 50-over competition, taking 10 wickets in seven matches with her well-flighted off-spin, averaging just 20.10 with an economy rate of only 4.46.

As a batter, she relies more on feel than power and scored her second half-century for the Titans last season. She has also represented the SA Emerging team and was a member of the squad that reached the final of the Africa Games in Ghana.

Katherine Prior

The Fidelity Titans were fortunate to receive good starts in most of their innings last season thanks to the presence of Prior and skipper Robyn Searle at the top of the order.

The Mpumalanga product’s transformation from a bowling all-rounder to top-order batter was made complete in 2023/24 as Prior scored 305 runs for the Titans in the one-day competition, second only to Searle, at a superb average of 61.00, including three half-centuries. She was also the aggressor up front in the T20 tournament, striking at 106.66.

Prior is more of a part-time bowler these days, but her bustling medium-pace, with a bit of swing, still chips in with useful wickets.

Amogelang Maphangula

Amogelang Maphangula is the sort of white-ball player that gets viewers up off their couches – an exciting, dominating middle-order batter and a wonderful fielder.

Fresh out of her teens, Maphangula was really able to express herself with the bat in the 50-over competition last season, scoring 153 runs at an average of 25.50 and a phenomenal strike-rate of 124.39 – the best in the tournament.

She performed her finishing role with intent in the T20 league, striking at 103.70.

A thrilling season for Maphangula saw her play in Japan as part of an exchange programme and she was named the Titans’ Most Promising Player at the end of the local campaign.

Who knows where Maphangula’s cricketing odyssey will end, what we do know is that it will get spectators on their feet.

Kay-Leigh Tapp

Tapp began her provincial career way back in 2006 in Durban, where she was born, and, going into her 15^th season of senior cricket, she is still a wonderful pace bowler. Tapp joined the Titans in 2021 after a four-year break from the game; her appointment as head of girls’ sport and physical education at Beaulieu Preparatory School was why she moved to Gauteng.

The 34-year-old was a key member of the Fidelity Titans’ one-day team last season, taking 11 wickets, but what she did particularly well was restrict the batters – conceding just 3.83 runs-per-over. Tapp was similarly economical in the T20 competition, going for just 7.71 runs-per-over.

Tapp is a tall bowler who is able to bowl consistent lines and can either hit the deck hard or get the ball up to the batter.

Monalisa Legodi

One is loathe to put too much pressure on young cricketers and Monalisa Legodi is still a teenager but has become a regular in the Fidelity Titans senior outfit. The tall and athletic pace bowler played 13 times in both one-day and T20 cricket for the team last season and was particularly effective in the 50-over game, taking seven wickets in six matches at an average of 19.85 and conceding just 5.14 runs-per-over.

Having already played for the SA U19 and SA Emerging teams, Legodi is poised to enter Titans lore if she continues to mature into the bowler she is expected to become. As far back as December 2020, Legodi, from the Soshanguve hub, grabbed an opportunity to impress then senior national coach Hilton Moreeng with her performances when he attended the Women’s Super League in Cape Town.

Alysia Rudolph

The 27-year-old Rudolph is a new signing from Division II side Easterns. A marvellously talented cricketer, she can bowl mesmerising off-spin as well as being a mighty striker of the ball, either at the top of the order or as a finisher.

Rudolph was a star all-round sportsgirl at Vereeniging Gimnasium and first played senior cricket in the Gauteng system, where she spent five years. She joined Easterns in 2020/21 and has earned her stint back in the domestic top division by virtue of her performances with the ball last season. Rudolph was the leading wicket-taker in the T20 Division II competition as well as being in the top-five in one-day cricket. With the bat, she struck at 84.31 in the 50-over game and 120.89 in the shortest format.

Pura Andreou

A product of the powerful Cornwall Hill College cricket system, Pura Andreou is a new signing for the Fidelity Titans, fresh out of school. But she has been a dominant batter not just against her peers, but in Northerns senior premier league club cricket. Andreou plays for Irene Villagers and shone for them back in April at the T20 national club championships. Andreou has played for the Titans U19 team since 2021, taking a terrible toll on bowling attacks since then.

Masabata Klaas

The Proteas stalwart hails from Botshabelo in the Free State and joined the Fidelity Titans last season, enjoying a marvellous debut campaign in which she topped both the batting and bowling averages for the team in the T20 competition. Klaas claimed seven scalps in her five T20s, averaging just 15.00 and conceding just 5.52 runs-per-over. She also showed she has the makings of a genuine all-rounder, producing some mighty blows as she scored 94 runs in four innings, being dismissed just once and scoring at a magnificent strike-rate of 130.55.

Klaas took six one-day wickets, with an economy rate of only 4.40, and also averaged 25.33 with the bat, at a strike-rate of 83.51.

A bustling pace bowler who keeps to tight off-side lines and has an excellent slower-ball, Klaas has played nearly 150 times for South Africa in all formats and is an inspirational figure because she took time off from her career to be a mother.

Laura Wolvaardt

A prestigious signing for the Fidelity Titans last season, Wolvaardt’s hot run of form just keeps rolling on, even though she has also now taken over the captaincy of the Proteas. In Tests she became just the third player to score a century in all three formats of women’s international cricket; in ODIs she powered her way to five centuries last season while scoring 925 runs in 15 innings, at an average of 84.09 and a strike-rate of 88.68; and in T20s she averaged 62 with a strike-rate of 124.

A global superstar who has won the Big Bash League twice and has also played in the T20 leagues in England and India, Wolvaardt was named South Africa’s Player of the Year earlier in 2024 and walked away with four other awards. Born in Milnerton and educated at Parklands College in the Western Cape, Wolvaardt first began playing cricket with boys when she was four years old.

A supreme stylist at the crease, with arguably the most beautiful cover-drive in the game, opening batter Wolvaardt combines technical excellence with fiery strokeplay.

Anneke Bosch

The 31-year-old Proteas regular joined the Fidelity Titans last season and, without ever going wild with the bat, enjoyed a very solid debut season for the Sky Blue Daisies.

Bosch averaged 39.50 in 50-over cricket and 37.75 in the T20 competition. Technically correct as a batter who is flexible enough to bat in the top-order and lower down, Bosch also offers part-time seam bowling and has a dozen international wickets to her name.

Hailing from East London, Bosch’s journey to the Titans has taken her via Border, Free State and North-West. She made her Proteas debut in 2016 and is a qualified biokineticist.

Sune Luus

The Titans legend and former Proteas captain goes into the 2024/25 season having enjoyed her own version of an Indian summer to give her plenty of momentum. Luus scored 65 and an epic 109 in South Africa’s Test against India in Chennai in June, showing that beneath the broadest of smiles there is a character with huge tenacity.

Luus, who has a cricket-mad father and older brother, took up the game at the age of four and by the time she was 13, she was playing for the Titans senior side already, debuting in 2009. Luus was a top-order batter for the Hoërskool Menlopark boys team through to U15 level, taking on provincial representatives.

Apart from scoring more than 3700 runs for South Africa in all formats, Luus has also taken more than 150 white-ball wickets with her well-flighted leg-spin.

A gutsy performer, Luus is one of the most accomplished cricketers to come out of Northerns territory and everyone at the Titans was delighted to see her back to her best for the Proteas, after some tough series.

Luus fitted in four appearances for the Fidelity Titans last season between all her international commitments and played a couple of blazing knocks in the T20 competition, striking at 155.10.

Eliz-Mari Marx

A penetrative pace bowler and a big-hitting batter, Marx has been part of the Titans set-up since 2016, when she was just 13 years old.

But last season was her breakthrough campaign. The all-rounder started the season by nailing the SWD Badgers attack for 115 runs off just 66 balls, an innings studded with 11 fours and six sixes. In December she made her Proteas debut and in February she claimed two key wickets in a robust spell of pace bowling during South Africa’s historic first ODI win against Australia on their home turf.

Born and bred in Pretoria, Marx went to Hoërskool Zwartkop, the same school that produced Titans legend Mignon du Preez. Physically powerful, Marx is fast becoming a key player for the Daisies and a rising talent in South African cricket.

Gordon Matheson

Gordon Matheson comes to SuperSport Park as the new head coach of the Fidelity Titans after three challenging seasons in charge of the Mpumalanga senior men’s team.

An experienced mentor who has been coaching since 2001, Matheson was previously in charge of the King Edward V11 1^st XI and played a pivotal role in the development of exciting new stars in South African cricket like Bryce Parsons and Mitchell van Buuren.

A coach who is strong on batting and building relationships with his players, Matheson was introduced to the game as a young child by his grandfather (also Gordon), who played first-class cricket for Griqualand West in the 1960s.

Athi Maphosa

Having been the assistant coach of the KZN Inland Tuskers men’s team in Division One last season, Athi Maphosa is an exciting addition to the Fidelity Titans coaching staff.

The 34-year-old Maphosa has plenty of playing experience, appearing more than a hundred times for the KZN Inland team as a tidy pace bowler, as well as featuring in 13 franchise matches for the Dolphins.

Born in Umzimkulu in the southern Natal Midlands, Maphosa was educated at Maritzburg College and played for the SA Schools Colts side in 2008. He has also been involved in coaching at hubs level – at Sweetwaters.