Ken Borland

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.

Garreth Ewing has enjoyed an excellent trophy-winning run at both provincial and club level, making him an obvious choice as national men’s coach and now he faces his greatest challenge as he takes the South African team to the Olympic Games.

Ewing first made his name as the coach of the dominant University of Johannesburg side and stints as coach of both the Southern Gauteng men’s and women’s teams brought success at that level too. Parallel to that, Ewing has been involved at national level since 2004, as a selector, video analyst, team manager, high-performance trainer and assistant coach. Some of his most notable work, however, has been with the SA U21 side, taking them to an IPT final for the first time and securing an outstanding 10^th-place finish in the 2016 Junior World Cup in India.

And now he is the head coach of the senior men’s side, preparing for the Olympic Games. And probably no-one could have more knowledge than Ewing of all the steps in the pipeline, and all the players who have made that journey, as South Africa look to shine in Tokyo.

The Olympics will be a formidable challenge though as they are grouped with world champions Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada in Pool B. But Ewing reckons some of his best work has been done under immense pressure.

“I’m very lucky to have learnt so much from all those different roles, it’s a huge advantage and I’ve coached a lot at provincial level, at every age-group and for both genders. When I first started, I was a bit hard-arsed and focused on results. But I’ve shifted more towards getting the process right, getting the players to perform at the right times, like in knockout games. I think I’m quite good at that, I think I’m calm under pressure and that would be my greatest strength. When there’s turmoil inside, it’s important how you communicate with the players.

“If you’re going to the Olympics, you expect it to be daunting, and all of our opponents, except for Canada, are ranked in the top six for good reason. Canada are in the top-10 and have earned that. But if we were in the other pool [Australia, Argentina, India, Spain, New Zealand & Japan] it would be exactly the same. The teams we are playing against have styles that we are familiar with though, so that may be an advantage,” Ewing says.

Although Ewing self-deprecatingly says he was always “the worst player in quite good teams”, he played Premier League hockey for many years for both Randburg and RAU. But he was never a sleeper when it came to the desire to coach; that yearning first began when he was at Randpark High School.

Which is where his nickname of “Springdog” originates.

“It goes all the way back to high school. We were playing at Springs Boys High and I managed to singlehandedly bugger up a whole game, which knocked us out of a tournament. It’s a helluva long drive on a bus from Springs back to Randburg and the team called me ‘Springsdog’ all the way back and it stuck.

“But I was very influenced by Garth Neilson [a leading figure in both education and coaching] and so I became a student coach to earn some pocket money. I started to take it a bit more seriously when I got to Varsity and was playing first team for RAU. And then I was very involved for a very long time at UJ – from 1999 to 2019. The set-up there was so good and we had extremely strong players, so my profile increased.

“I did enjoy playing but I liked coaching more and I can remember the turning point came when I was double-booked – I had league games as both a player and a coach at the same time, and the decision was pretty simple. I haven’t picked up a hockey stick in anger in a long time,” Ewing said.

Just a look at the prices of hockey sticks these days will give an idea of the challenges facing South Africa’s largely amateur set-up in taking on fully professional teams on the international stage. Without much official backing from either SA Hockey or Sascoc, they had to resort to crowdfunding to raise the R3.5 million required to prepare and go to Tokyo.

But a wonderful new relationship forged with the award-winning digital brand specialists Matchkit.co has proven very fruitful and Ewing believes it points to the way forward for South African hockey.

“Matchkit have been a really good partner. The money raised is a drop in the ocean compared to what we need to remain competitive going forward, but the short-term opportunities have been very favourable and it’s very encouraging. I don’t think we have put enough value in PR, and working with those professionals has been really refreshing,” Ewing says.

The lack of proper marketing of the national hockey teams bugs the keen cyclist and golfer because he worked in public relations before he became a full-time coach.

And it is not the national team that pays his salary either. Like many other hockey coaches, Ewing has had to go back to school to earn a living.

“Since I was around 30 I’ve really tried to do fulltime coaching as much as possible and I’m very privileged to work in a wonderful sports department at St John’s College. That gives me the flexibility to work at national level.

Before that I was fortunate to have two stints overseas. The first was as a player/coach in the UK at Holcombe. I wasn’t really ready then but I learnt from my mistakes. Then I took a post for a year at the University of North Carolina, before spending two years at North-Eastern University in Boston. They had very strong operations environments, big budgets and extremely hard-working athletes.”

The two things Ewing wishes South African hockey could have in the near future are for the national teams to spend more time together and for club hockey to become more professional.

“An element of centralisation would allow for more time together as a national team. Even three months spread out through the year would be a help, it would make such a difference from a high-performance point of view.

“I would also love to see our club leagues become more professional and serious. Our top clubs nationally should be a bit more aware of the big world out there that their top players will be facing. I love the social aspect of hockey, that’s a huge part of the game, but performance is not taken seriously enough.

“We don’t train enough, we get away with practice twice a week and we don’t do any conditioning work. I don’t want to lose the social side of hockey, but we also need to focus more on high-performance,” Ewing says.

Not that he believes his Proteas minnows are going to be squashed like bugs in Tokyo.

“There was really intense competition for places in the squad and I’m very optimistic that we have a good core of players. There are definitely enough young guys who can go to the next Olympics and probably the next one after that as well, plus a core of experienced players who have been consistent. It’s a pretty balanced squad.

“When I committed to high-performance coaching, I decided I wanted to go to the Olympics, so it’s a personal milestone for me. As a professional you always want to test yourself against the very best, so the Olympics and the World Cup are that.

“So it’s a big thing for me but it’s not about me. I’m very humbled to have the opportunity and I’m very aware of the significance and how important it is for the players. So I feel a lot of responsibility on my shoulders,” Ewing said.

The provincial presidents on the Members Council who are in favour of the proposed changes to the governance of Cricket South Africa seem to be taking responsibility for solving the impasse with the Interim Board and Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa as six of the unions have now issued statements supporting a majority independent board and an independent chairperson.

It may still be a case of too little, too late though as Mthethwa mulls what action to take under Section 13 (5) of the Sports Act against CSA for missing their deadline to approve a new constitution ahead of an AGM.

On Wednesday, the Northerns and Mpumalanga cricket unions issued statements supporting the stance of Central Gauteng, North-West, Easterns and Free State that there should be a majority independent board and independent chairperson.

The two Highveld unions also called for all stakeholders to take part in a national indaba, steered by an independent mediator, to resolve the impasse as quickly as possible.

But in his letter to the Members Council on Tuesday night telling them he would be taking action against them according to the provisions of the Sports Act, Mthethwa said “your proposal to convene a multi-party stakeholder conference to deal with a matter that you have been seized with for a number of months, does not make sense to me.”

Because Mthethwa has the authority to no longer recognise CSA, it would mean South Africa could go back to the days of isolation and not have an official national team.

As the sports minister told a radio station on Tuesday night, if things continue the way they are, the world will have to be told there is no cricket in South Africa.

Cricket South Africa’s Interim Board have been attacking the problem of the Members Council’s intransigence with Dobermann-like tenacity over the last week and there are hopes that next week will bring a reconvened meeting of the provincial presidents and a revote that sees the new Memorandum of Incorporation for the permanent board passed.

Last weekend the Members Council rejected the proposed MoI that would have implemented the recommendations of the Nicholson Commission, specifically having a board made up of a majority of independent directors, chaired by one of the independent directors.

The Interim Board has spent this week engaging with the provincial boards and have discovered that the 8-6 vote against an independent board may not have been an accurate reflection of the actual wishes of the delegates. In their discussions it has also emerged that there were misunderstandings over the definition of an ‘independent’ director, in some cases because of misinformation from the provincial president sitting on the Members Council.

“The Interim Board has engaged with the affiliate unions and they have found an open mind. It seems there has been some misinformation and they did not understand how a majority independent board would work, with more specific focus on getting cricket people involved. There are thousands of cricket-lovers in this country who could be eligible as an independent director.

“It seems some Members Council delegates who are not keen on the change did not motivate the proposals correctly to their own provincial boards. Some false notions were peddled, maybe to try and ensure more seats for the non-independents. It also seems that the vote against the MoI may not have been properly recorded because some provinces actually voted yes but wanted more detail,” a source with intimate knowledge of the discussions told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

One of the arguments put forward against the new MoI is Sascoc policy that states members are to have boards comprising a majority of non-independent directors. But it is believed the Interim Board are willing to face down Sascoc as well if they do not allow the composition of CSA’s board to change.