Ken Borland

Captain Marcell Coetzee will go to Japan after leading the Bulls against one of his former teams, the Sharks, in Pretoria on Sunday, but he assured on Wednesday that he will be back to resume his crucial role in the Loftus Versfeld community.

“This weekend is my last match for the Bulls this year, and I will be back at the back end of April or the first week of May,” Coetzee confirmed. “It’s a big opportunity for me in Japan with Kobe.

“But the positive is that I know I’m coming back, I missed my country too much during my five years with Ulster. It’s an honour playing for the Bulls and my home is in Pretoria, that’s where my heart definitely is.

“My rugby career started at the Sharks, they gave me a gap and were very good to me. But time moves on. And I’m very happy where I am with the Bulls, the staff and the team spirit we have built up.

“There’s lots of history between the Bulls and the Sharks, so it’s always a very physical battle. It’s going to be tough, even without their Springboks, a titanic struggle,” Coetzee said.

While one can never criticise a 31-year-old player for chasing a lucrative deal like this Japanese sojourn, and the Bulls are happy to treat it as a sabbatical for a player who they recently contracted until 2026, Coetzee hopes he will also come back a different player.

“In 2015 I spent three months in Japan with Honda Heat and my skill-set really improved,” the Springbok with 31 Test caps said. “So I’ll be looking to develop certain things while I’m there.

“They play very high-tempo rugby in Japan and you run a lot. The URC is getting quicker as well, especially when you play against the Irish and Scottish teams.

“The move will hopefully keep me on my toes because there are a lot of loosies coming through,” Coetzee said.

But for now, Coetzee’s focus will be on chasing the ball at the breakdown, as he did so brilliantly in the Bulls’ much-needed win over Benetton in Treviso last weekend.

“How the game has developed, teams put a lot of pressure on the breakdown, especially the UK teams, because you’re trying to eliminate the tempo of the opposition.

“We are blessed to have a few guys who make good decisions there – Marco van Staden, Bismarck du Plessis and a couple of backs.

“Against Benetton, we were firing shots and eventually the dam wall broke because we were able to implement our quick tempo game and we got a bonus point.

“We need to show the same patience against the Sharks, put pressure on them. We have to really show up because we can’t just rely on home ground advantage,” Coetzee said.

The opening of The President’s Links, a golf estate of world-class quality, based on the principles of eco-friendly sustainability and durability, is very good news for the community of Walvis Bay as a whole.

Comprised of over 745 luxurious residential units in about 148 hectares, the estate offers comfort, safety and high-class leisure and commercial amenities. Chief among these is Namibia’s first signature golf course, designed by the legendary Peter Matkovich and leading South African golfer Louis Oosthuizen, who has finished the year ranked inside the top-10 of the world golf rankings.

Matkovich and Oosthuizen chose the specific location of the course, on the edge of the Dorob National Park and on the fringes of Walvis Bay town. The distinctive dunes surrounding the course will be an added attraction and The President’s Links are hopeful of attracting thousands of golfing tourists. Aiming to be on the top-100 list of global courses, they are also optimistic that they can attract the Sunshine Tour back to Namibia and possibly even stage a DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) event in the future.

Anyone investing in The President’s Links will automatically contribute to The Living Desert Fund. Twenty percent of every house sold will go into this sustainability fund, which will enable community development initiatives as well as maintaining the golf course and clubhouse.

The President’s Links will undoubtedly boost the local economy, creating jobs and adding to the sense that Walvis Bay is a centre of growth, especially since the construction of the new container terminal at the port which has a capacity of at least 750 000 standard 20-foot equivalent units per annum.

The estate is a big investment in Namibia as a whole and the Walvis Bay community will benefit through the presence of multinational technology retailers such as iStore, a new state-of-the-art hospital, a hotel and casino operated by an international group, and other retailers of global brands such as Starbucks.

In an extremely arid country like Namibia, water conservation is always a priority and The President’s Links will be using electrocoagulation technology to convert water that was formerly effluent exiting the Walvis Bay municipality into an odourless source of irrigation water for use out on the golf course. The municipality has granted the estate three million litres a day of water that is currently not fit for human consumption and cannot be purified to potable drinking water. All water not used on the estate will then be sent back to the surrounding community for their use.

The President’s Links is complying fully with the Edge (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) Certification system of the International Finance Corporation. Edge certification gives owners the assurance that their homes are built to be resource efficient. By focusing on energy and water saving initiatives, as well as ensuring the maximum use of raw materials in their most natural state, the estate has made a minimum of 20% savings across the board.

For the non-golfers, there will be plenty of other amenities for the amusement of residents, including pet-friendly recreational parks, a sports education centre, restaurants and coffee shops, gym, bowling alley, swimming pool, tennis courts, running and cycling tracks.

The President’s Links offer the ultimate in style and luxury and the ideal opportunity to live, work and retire in Walvis Bay. Investing in this eco-friendly, sustainable and yet modern and sophisticated estate includes free golf membership.

Set in the beauty of nature in its raw form, the President’s Links mixed development offers spacious living and incredible amenities.

Vernon Philander has never been one to pass the buck, as his tireless work uplifting his community has shown, which is why he has decided to make a comeback to help not just Western Province but South African cricket as a whole.

The great seam bowler’s decision to come out of retirement is great news for Western Province, who will be built around a core of the struggling Cape Cobras side, minus key figures who will be playing for Boland like the Malan brothers, Janneman and Pieter.

But the presence of Philander, who took 224 Test wickets at just 22.32 before retiring in January last year, will also help raise the standard of the new-look domestic game and the 35-year-old said he is wanting to help players from all the teams and not just his own.

“Western Province will have a young squad and there is a big need for me to play a part there, considering I still probably have two or three years left in me and I still have the firepower to perform and do well. But there is also not much experience around the country and I’m looking at the greater picture. We were fortunate to learn from older guys when we started out whether they were in our squad or not.

“So there’s a massive role to play in helping the future generations with those extra learnings, they can tap into our knowledge and hopefully stay calmer for longer. Hopefully I can help make sure they mature in the proper manner. Obviously I am still playing for trophies, but I want to encourage bowlers from other teams to speak to me so I can help South African cricket grow,” Philander told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

While the jury is still out on whether the new domestic system will actually improve South African cricket, Philander said the quality of play locally definitely needed some attention.

“I’ve been having honest chats with a few people and it boils down to standards and whether we are okay with mediocre. I personally don’t think there’s any place for that, so my goal is ultimately to help the standard of cricket in this country by setting a good example and standards. You want an atmosphere of enjoying what you do, but you also have a responsibility to perform,” Philander said.

The new-look team based at Newlands is also likely to feature the returns of batting maestro Hashim Amla and Wayne Parnell, who at 31 years old is still very capable of bringing some all-round magic.

The forced removals that destroyed the culturally-diverse Marabastad community count amongst the most shameful incidents in Pretoria history, separating the Black, Indian and Coloured communities that lived in the area.  They all played cricket together in an association presided over by the famous Mr Sooboo and in the mid-1930s there were numerous teams playing like Azads, Old Boys, Navyugas, Sheffield, Rangers, Foresters, Burma Lads, Districts, Olympians Kismet and Clydes.

But these teams were largely mono-cultural, with Azads comprising mainly Gujaratis, Rangers being a Coloured team, Burma Lads made up of Tamils and Districts largely comprising Surtees. However race never played a part in sport as competitions were mixed.  Black cricket played at Bantulie was curtailed with the forced removal of Blacks to Atteridgeville.  But by then the Group Areas Act had further condemned Indians to Laudium and Coloureds to Eersterust.

Facilities in Marabastad comprised only two fields which were used for soccer and cricket. One had a grass pitch and the other a matting wicket which was known as the Razor’s Edge because of the rough sand and stones that cut up anyone foolhardy enough to leave his feet. The uneven pitch was bouncy and dangerous and Dhiraj Soma (Sapa), perhaps the Father of Sport in Marabastad, once had his front teeth knocked out batting on it.Teams from the Marabastad region, including Bantulie (the current site of the Tech grounds), where Black cricket was centred, were selected to play against sides from Johannesburg and the Western Transvaal, as well as Brits.  Even the great Basil d’Oliveira turned out to represent Northern Transvaal in an interprovincial game.

By then Marabastad had all but closed down and Laudium had become its successor for cricket.  The complex history of Marabastad cricket included a mass folding of clubs in the early 1970s, with the survivors, Foresters, Sheffield and Burma Lads, going to play in the SACBOC leagues, which was not a simple task as it meant travelling to places like Bosmont, Newclare, Lenasia, Ermelo, Potchefstroom and Germiston.

Rashid Varachia’s attempt at unifying cricket in 1976 also failed as Foresters and Rangers initially joined the White leagues but pulled out after a couple of years, with various on-field incidents reflecting racial undertones. It was clear true integration was still far off.  In 1975, Foresters were allowed to use the ground in Laudium as their home base, but in 1978 they pulled out of the league and the venue became derelict. Burma Lads and Shefield continued playing in the SACBOC league.

It wasn’t until 1984 when an attempt to rekindle cricket was made. Cricket resurfaced after a few years in the doldrums. Although the area was given a turf sports ground, the facilities remained ill-prepared with long grass and cooking flour used to mark the pitch and stones for boundaries!.  New teams were formed: Cavaliers, Delfos, Trishul, and Kent. Brits, Rangers, Districts and Sheffield re-surfaced. But that only lasted a couple of years before fizzling out again as facilities were non-existent.

After the SA tour to India during 1991 interest in cricket was renewed.  A further attempt was made in 1991 to rekindle cricket in Laudium, by Nilesh Mistry and Harry Karsen, with Delfos, Foresters, Leeds (ex-Sheffield), Kent, Brits Al-Amien and Districts all playing a part in what was to become the Sunday League.

In 1998, unity talks with the Northerns Cricket Union, saw Laudium, one of the previously disadvantaged teams, nominated to play in the Northerns Premier League.  That was always going to be a huge challenge and someone needed to guide them through these turbulent waters. That someone was Aniel Soma and by 1999 he had masterminded the participation at the highest level by deserving players as well as development of the new Oval in Laudium and the upgrading of the derelict building to a clubhouse to meet the demands of cricket.

When Soma was a young player, techniques were learnt mainly by listening to radio commentary, But professional coaches were brought into Laudium to assist, like Anton Ferreira and Gerhard Maree. The township south-west of the CBD can now be considered a cricketing stronghold, having hosted matches in the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2005 and India A tour matches, but it has taken a lot of effort and determination to achieve that.

The current team, evenly split between Black and Indian players, will continue to honour the tradition of great Marabastad and Laudium figures like the disciplined Arthur Karodia, the deft Eddie Naidoo, the brute Dhiraj Soma (Sapa), the fearless Viggie Naidoo, the guile of Jerry Makan, the stylish touches of  Rashid Bhikha, the cunningness of G Pillay, the power of Solly May, the all-round capability of Julian Weideman and the pace of Ameen Nagdee.  How can we ever forget the likes of Chandoo Ramjee, Mohamed Mia, Dhanraj Soma, Ramesh Nathoo, Hira Soma, Nithia Pillay,  Ebrahim Ebrahim, Ragie Moodley, Gopal Chetty, Deenen Padiachy, Hama Ahmed or Yusuf Ismail, Deshi Bhaktawer, Yogendra Naran, Gaffar Ahmed and their contribution to our cricket.

We pay tribute to those who paved the way.