My Journey Through Mamelodi Cricket

It’s a really sad day today. Not because of the overcast, gloomy weather that’s hovering over the beloved township of Mamelodi, but because this is my last Premier League cricket match for a team that’s not just my cricket team –but one team that has become a family to me.

I’m driving to the cricket ground with my very close friend and former first-class cricketer, Mpho Selowa, who relentlessly keeps reminiscing ways to make me look like a fool when I soon get to bowl at him. He plays club cricket for Tshwane University of Technology (TUT); against us today, Mamelodi Cricket Club. He’s a very talented black wicket-keeper batsman this Selowa boy. Sadly he’s now talent that has been wasted because of politics and certain agendas including his character throughout his career.

He’s not the only cricketer though –I could make a list of all the cricketers I’ve met in my very young career, that in some point of their lives have represented South Africa in cricket whether it is school or university cricket –but struggle to even obtain a first-class cricket contract.

Mpho and I finally get to the Mamelodi Oval and immediately start greeting everybody that’s in sight. Some are players I played academy cricket with, some are school youngsters that I’ve heard about, but only see them today for the first time. A few are people I’ve never really liked, simply because they think they’re better than the game and better than other cricketers.

 The weather is really not looking good right now and slowly starts to pour harder onto the historical ground. It now starts to sink in slowly that I won’t have an opportunity to play my last game on the field that has taught me so much about not only cricket, but life and family as well.

Life in this cricket club though was never this peaceful and harmonious. In the two seasons I had spent here, I noticed players being spiteful, jealous and bitter amongst each other. One would blame it on the other player or on the Northerns Cricket Union (NCU). But I later learned that the major problem with the club and why we seemed to face relegation each year was one thing –a lack of black consciousness. We had this attitude that this gentlemen’s sport as it’s famously called was a white/Afrikaner man’s sport.

However in my last season spend here, thing started changing. We got a new administrator in former Northerns cricketer, Patrick Nkuna, and a new coach, Sello “Bra Cry” Sebola, who was indeed very radical in his approach and very enthusiastic in coaching the beautiful game to us. These two men made sure that all players understand the structures of selection by making us challenge each other for first team positions. A 26-year-old would feel so disappointed having lost his place to a young hungry-winning schoolboy cricketer.

I doubt a lot of people can imagine how privileged I was to be sharing the same changing room with cricketers such as Abram Ndlovu and James Mokonyama who once played for the Titans, Thabang Khumalo and Lerato Kgoatle who seem to be the future of black batsmen in Northerns Cricket, if they careers are treated with immense responsibility by the NCU. These cricketers are hugely respected throughout the entire country by professional and amateur cricketers. Listening to their stories, words of wisdom and guidance, such could only be found at Mamelodi Cricket Club –were cricket is more than just a game.

-Mandilulame Manjezi
@JizzyJakesTheIn