An Adventure With The Titans

“Okay boys! You guys shall be training with the Titans today. This is a learning opportunity, I really hope you’ll use it efficiently –and remember, BE VERY PROFESSIONAL OUT THERE!” These words from our academy coach, Mark Charlton, really gave me shivers down my spine.

As the Northerns Titans Affiliated cricket academy in Pretoria we had been invited to join one of the Nashua Titans’ training sessions in preparation for the big cricketing event that shall take over South Africa in a few days’ time –The Champions League Twenty 20. The Nashua Titans, as well as their provincial neighbors, the Highveld Lions, managed to obtain a spot in inaugural tournament by qualifying for the finals of the South African domestic T20 MiWay Tournament.

We the Academy players were thrilled for what the mighty Titans had under their sleeves for us on the day. Instead of sitting around like a flock of chickens ready to be slaughtered, we decided to head on to the green pastures of the historical SuperSport Park and warm ourselves up by kicking a soccer ball around. During our intense warm up, the Titans players emerged from the changing room and led themselves down the long towered stairs of SuperSport Park and on to the field were they would start their own warm up below the stands on the field.

We cut our warm up session to a complete stop and stared at them working on their warm up while we sat on the grass amazed and muttered by how they conducted themselves with just a simply warming up –It was crazy! One of the academy guys screamed excitedly “Shit! There’s Jacques Rudolph!” then realizing afterwards that he sounded like a 5 year old groupie seeing his hero face-to-face for the first time. The other academy boys gave him that “don’t embarrass us bro” type of look after his moment of excitement.

It was now time to get on with the real business. The opening batting pair of Pieter Malan and Henry Davids strolled onto the middle were the practice would take place, after their very long team talk with the Titans coach and former English county cricket Glamorgan batsman –Matthew Maynard. Surprisingly it was the Titans left-arm spinner, Roelof Van Der Merwe, who opened the bowling along with T20 bowling specialist, Alfonso Thomas. I assume that’s their plan heading into their first match against Australia’s Perth Scorchers.

There was good cricket all around with Thomas showcasing the different skills he has gained from playing T20 cricket all over the world and Davids middling the ball with each stroke he played. I managed to get a chance to ask CJ De Villiers for some advice on bowling cutters. He gladly showed me one of his favourite –and then executed it for me to demonstrate how it works. It was all breath taking.

Next pair to bat was the dynamic wicket-keeper batsman, Heino Kuhn, along with veteran county cricket batsman, Martin Van Jaarsveld, who seemed to be really struggling against the Titans pace bowlers that consisted of Thomas, Ethy Mbhalati and CJ De Villiers. Cursing vicious swear-words and relentlessly shouting at himself with every shot he mistimed into the humid air of Centurion.

The session lasted about 3 hours of hard intensive cricket under the hot African heat. It was undoubtedly a really fantastic experience with South African cricket’s T20 champions. The Nashua Titans start their campaign in the T20 Champions League on October 13, so don’t miss out on the action. Get to SuperSport Park to catch the mighty Titans live displaying much elegant and delightful cricketing action!

-Mandilulame Manjezi
@JizzyJakes