Ken Borland

Allan Donald has seen a lot in a legendary career that has taken him all over the world, but he admitted to being blown away by the passion with which the youngsters he was coaching recently at the DP World Wanderers Stadium are chasing their cricket dreams.

DP World Lions bowling coach Donald, as well as the men’s team’s head coach Russell Domingo, conducted a coaching clinic as a reward for the winners of the best batter and bowler awards in each division of the Diadora Jozi Cup held over the winter. Donald said it was a most rewarding experience for himself as well.

“It was a lot of fun because it’s not every day that I get to work with youngsters. The passion for DP World Lions cricket was just extraordinary, the enthusiasm and love for the game. And also their knowledge of the game, they were all talking about their heroes.

“You tend to think that everything is about the Springboks these days, so it was refreshing and really cool to see that passion for cricket. It stems from the schools and it tells me how the schools look after their facilities and the level of coaching, including the pipeline coaches. It shows that we have a proper cricket culture in this province. There’s a lot more talent in our cricket than people think.

“I just really admire the work Jono Leaf-Wright [CEO] puts into the pipeline, he doesn’t get enough credit for it. Russell says the same thing, it’s a real eye-opener. I was stunned by the amount of leagues, blown away. I had heard about the Diadora Jozi Cup but it has really struck me how much effort the DP World Lions put into it, their heart and soul. And there’s also the Black Widow League.

“I haven’t seen this sort of well-run effort before and it’s a bit of a culture shock, in a good way of course,” Donald said.

Retaining all this talent in the great game is vital and Donald is mindful of how the different levels of cricket have different needs.

“It’s not often that I get to coach at this junior level, maybe 2% of the time, so you hope to influence them positively. Then again we even had one of the Over-40 winners batting in the nets!

“But with the little guys I stay away from technique because they won’t really understand those details until they are more senior. It’s just cool to see them enjoying themselves and it’s amazing how quickly they adopt what you are telling them. They must be allowed to fail; I was lucky I didn’t have parents or uncles or grandparents in my ear all the time when I was growing up.

“But it shows how healthy our school system is and hopefully they can get a lot more exposure, like schools rugby does on TV, that takes things to a different level. The problem with cricket is when the players leave school and go to Varsity, they get lost and despondent that they’re not being looked at. These players who are adrift in the system is why the academy was brought back,” Donald said.

Reuben Mandlazi, the DP World Lions amateur cricket manager, was a proud onlooker at the coaching session.

“This is testament to the work of the Diadora Jozi Cup, which caters for everyone from U11s to veterans. Cricket is our core business at the Lions, we have to ensure the game gets stronger and I’m excited where this is going – it is a feeder to our clubs and our pipeline. I’m very pleased, even though there is still a lot to improve on in certain areas.

“This is the first time we have had this MVP experience for the best batter and bowlers in each division, and any aspiring youngster could not ask for more than to be coached by Russell Domingo and Allan Donald. They understand what it takes to get to the top, they know what high-performance cricket takes,” Mandlazi said.

JOHANNESBURG – England-based James Mack shot a six-under-par 66 on Wednesday to lead the Gary & Vivienne Player Challenge after the first round at Kyalami Country Club, but there is a hunk of prime South African Sunshine Tour talent chasing him down just one stroke behind.

Simon du Plooy, Jacques P. de Villiers, Ruan de Smidt, Christiaan Burke, Martin Rohwer and Jonathan Broomhead all posted five-under-par 67s on Wednesday to ensure Mack has plenty of challengers in his rearview mirror.

De Villiers, whose only bogey came on the par-five 13^th when he three-putted, said the key to doing well at Kyalami Country Club on Wednesday was shaping the ball on the 6631m course with tight fairways.

“The fairways are very hard and they’re tight, so it’s tough to hit them with the ball bouncing so much. You’ve got to be able to shape the ball off the tee and I did that well today,” De Villiers said.

“I also putted really well and even though I made four birdies and an eagle, I still had a few horseshoes, including one that came right back at me. But it was a really solid round, I played well today in conditions that were very nice. It wasn’t too cold this morning and the wind didn’t blow too much either.”

The highlight of De Villiers’ season thus far has been finishing third in the FBC Zambia Open, which was then followed by a long break. His finishes since the Sunshine Tour returned to action have been 20^th, 43^rd, 35^th and 37^th, but the Schoeman Park golfer still feels his game is well-toned as he looks towards the co-sanctioned events in the summer.

“I’ve been working hard on my swing with Doug Wood and the changes are there or thereabouts. But the game has been trending in the right direction for sure over the last couple of weeks. It’s all preparation now for the big events on the summer swing,” the 34-year-old said.

Mack started his round on the par-four 10^th hole and immediately picked up a birdie. Two more birdies in a faultless back nine saw him go out in three-under, and he collected four more birdies on the front nine, although a bogey on the par-three fourth hole was a hiccup.

Ten other golfers are two shots behind on four-under-par.

CENTURION, Gauteng – Chipping in on the 10^th green and then making birdie on the 13^th proved to be the key blows as Martin Rohwer and Merrick Bremner held off the chasing pack to win the Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship by six strokes at Blue Valley Golf Estate on Saturday.

Rohwer and Bremner took a four-stroke lead into the betterball final round of the R1.2 million event, but that had all but evaporated as Combrinck Smit nailed a hole-in-one on the 173m second hole and then Erhard Lambrechts sank his second for an albatross on the par-five third hole.

But they are relative greenhorns compared to Bremner and Rohwer and the KwaZulu-Natal duo held their nerve superbly in tough, blustery conditions. Even so, they were only a couple of strokes ahead as they completed the front nine, before Rohwer chipped in for eagle on the 10^th and Bremner made an important birdie putt on the par-five 13^th.

“The wind was up today so it made it tough,” Rohwer said. “But we hung in there and dovetailed together quite well. The chip-in at 10 and then a huge birdie at 13 when Merrick chipped it almost dead, just pulled us clear a bit.

“We had seen a scoreboard on the ninth so we knew exactly how well Erhard and Combrinck were doing. But we stayed pretty aggressive and those three shots gained made it much easier for us down the stretch,” Rohwer said.

Bremner and Rohwer birdied the 15^th and then the par-five closing hole to finish with a 62 and 28-under-par overall. Lambrechts and Smit eventually posted a 61 to leave themselves on 22-under, alongside Jean Hugo and Hennie du Plessis, who were also 11-under on Saturday.

The victory was a particular relief for Bremner, a 36-year-old tour veteran for whom success has been as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster over the last year or so. It is his first victory since 2020.

For Rohwer, who claimed his second title at the Vodacom Origins of Golf final in January, the triumph rounded off a near-perfect week.

“It really helps with my exemption category which was going to run out in January. So now I’m in all the big co-sanctioned events and it’s just nice to win after putting in all the prep.

“It’s also massive for Merrick, who was great to have as a partner. It’s always special teaming up with a mate.

“And I absolutely loved the betterball-foursomes-betterball format, from start to finish,” Rohwer said.

Not chasing wickets but focusing on his lines and lengths was the key to left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj’s extraordinary performance that ripped through Bangladesh on the final day of the first Test against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban on Monday.

Bangladesh resumed on a poor 11/3 on the final morning and crashed to a venue record low of 53 all out in 55 minutes as Maharaj took 7/32 in 10 overs, the best figures in Tests between the two countries.

“There was a bit of spin on offer but it was more about bowling consistent lines and lengths,” Maharaj said. “You know you’re going to get wickets all the time, it was just about being patient.

“I was in a good space with how the ball was coming out, but when you don’t get reward, like in the first innings, then it can lead to a bit of frustration.

“But the emotion I showed was more about my hunger and desire to win a game for my country. It’s hard work and toil and about sticking to the processes,” Maharaj said after the second-best haul of wickets of his career.

Maharaj and Simon Harmer became the first pair of South Africans to be the only two bowlers used to bowl out a team, and Maharaj said when you have a man with 750 first-class wickets at the other end, it is advisable to tap into his knowledge as well.

“It’s always nice having a double-spin attack and the control of Simon was especially good. He had a really good game and he has come back a different type of bowler and player.

“He’s a world-class spinner, you can see that with the shapes and lines of his bowling. He’s a huge addition to the team and it’s nice to see how we each see things out there.

“He has good ideas, he’s fun in the changeroom and just a great asset to have in the team. My local knowledge can then take things a bit further and it was good to see our adaptability to get us across the line.

“It was very emotional for me, I love playing here in Durban, my home, and it was even more special for my family to be here.

“Our record has not been great here, so I’ll be very pleased if we have changed some mindsets and hopefully the guys now want to come back here,” Maharaj said.