Lenasia – The T20 Cricket World Cup is finally coming to its exciting conclusion. While all eyes are there, it’s important to give recognition to the community sports clubs that breed and develop youngsters who go on to achieve great success for their country. One such club is the Lenasia Cricket Club (LCC) which celebrates 28 years of serving the community and creating stars this year.
While LCC has been in existence for 28 years, cricket has existed in Lenasia for much longer than that. Mohsin Ahmed, former president of LCC and now Junior Convenor, has been with the club since its inception 1995. After Apartheid ended, there was no need for multiple clubs as everyone could now play together. It was then decided to bring everyone under one roof.
“All the clubs from the community of Lenasia merged and formed Lenasia Cricket Club. The history of cricket within this community spans back to the 1940’s and even before that … The Gauteng Cricket Board wanted the community to rather have one club in the area. Obviously then we were forced by the board to merge and form one particular club. Try and bring all our resources together in the community.”
The benefits of creating one cricket club
Inevitably merging all cricket clubs together has its disadvantages. Less players are produced within the community. With that, less clubs means there are less spots for people who want to play and only the best of the best get in. However, having just the best of the best under one roof is a huge advantage and one of the benefits that came out of the merger, explained Ahmed.
“We obviously brought the best players together and we have produced a lot of players for international level through that merger. Lenasia has that history of producing some sound performances and sound players that have come through the community that has played, somewhere along the line, first class cricket for the provincial team or at international level as well.”
Some of the stars LCC have produced include Hussein Manack who was part of the first national team that toured India as part of the Friendship Tour after Apartheid ended. Ahmed Umar played for South Africa Under 19’s and went on to play for the Lions and Titans. Shaylen Pillay, who also played for South Africa Under 19’s, is also a product of LCC, is currently playing for North West. Late Hoosain Ayob, who took cricket to Africa, was a legend of the game. Unfortunately, due to Apartheid policies he never got the chance to shine on the international stage but he is recognised as one of South Africa’s best pace bowlers.
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The future of Lenasia Cricket Club
It is clear to see LCC has been integral in producing and developing brilliant cricket players over the years. Players who have been recognised around the world. The hope is for this to continue and to make sure it does, the club has many projects currently in the works, said Ahmed.
“We got a lot of projects that we’re busy with. We produce a lot of players for various provincial teams. It’s not only about senior provincial teams. We produce a good number of youngsters that have played in provincial week in the various age groups be it under 12’s, under 13’s, under 16’s, under 19’s and the under 21’s … We’ve had players playing their winter league in Scotland. We also said farewell to one of our 21-year-old players who is leaving tomorrow morning and going to play cricket in New Zealand.”
The challenges faced and rising above it
Every club has its own challenges that it has to face and LCC is no different. The club faces many financial challenges as well as transporting challenges. It is only through the passion and determination of the staff that the club has managed to overcome them, said Ahmed.
“We have a lot of challenges. We have a lot of kids that play and their parents work on weekends. We have to make sure we transport them to the various grounds in and around Gauteng, in Joburg to play cricket … We have these challenges on a continuous basis and we try to rise above it and make sure these things don’t put us down. It’s the hunger and passion within the administration and the coaching staff that will go out and produce. Without financial resources we definitely would be found lacking.”
Another challenge faced by them is the lack of proper facilities. Much of the care and maintenance of fields have to be done by the club. Ahmed feels the current government has let them down and does not provide enough support to the club. The facilities, which should be maintained by the council, are not and have become the responsibility of the club.
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The key role of funding
For the past five years LCC has been sponsored by Big Bom which is why they are named Big Bom Lenasia Cricket Club. Ahmed credits this sponsorship as one of the main reasons the club has managed to do such great work over the past five years.
“Funding plays a huge role in the club. We employ coaches and we transport kids to the various grounds. When you’re playing at home you feed players, you’ve got to buy cricket balls, you’ve got to buy kits. If we don’t have fundraisers or have sponsors, we’ll be doomed. We won’t be able to be as big as what we are. We do have subscriptions and we have a lot of parents that cannot afford to pay subscriptions to the club. We’ve got a company like Big Bomb that has come to the party for us over the last five years. It has been so instrumental in terms of assisting us and taking the club to bigger heights.”
The club also hosts different fundraisers to raise money for the kids who play for them. Cricket equipment is quite expensive and there are many kids who cannot afford them. The fundraisers helps to generate money for these kids as well as those who stay in the informal settlements who wish to play cricket.
“We also have partnerships between informal settlements around us where kids from those communities come and play. They obviously cannot afford anything so we try and raise funds to be able to finance those things … [Cricket] is expensive but the hunger keeps us going and we’ve got a lot of passion.”
