The community cricket club from Kwa-Thema has landed a helping hand to the relief initiatives by various organizations and individuals around Kwatsaduza, which are aimed at assisting the less fortunate in the community in the time of the coronavirus-enforced national lockdown.
The club had added to the measures by giving away food parcels to families in Kwa-Thema in an attempt to alleviate hunger which has been made worse by the inability of non-essential service workers to move around freely. Interim chairman of the club, who is also the senior team’s all-rounder Thapelo Ditle says they opted to help out with what they could because as a club that’s based in the township, they know better than most about their communities’ needs.
“We are a cricket club that is based in the township, we know the struggle. We just took the initiative as a club to say, you know what, since there’s no cricket, what is it that we can do to assist some of our members who we are aware of in terms of their socio-economic. So we sat down and we had a few discussions, and we came up with the idea to say, why don’t we just get donations and see how far we can go and be able to provide that little bit of something, it’s better than nothing, you know.
“We take our club and our people very serious. This is just to say we really care even in tough times, we do care about them. It’s not like we’re only gonna worry about them only when it’s cricket season,” adds Ditle.
The season he speaks of was also brought to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic that has seen all forms of cricket suspended around the world.
Kwa-Thema Cricket Club is an affiliate of the Easterns Cricket leagues and the senior team, which Ditle plays for, participates in the Premier League along with clubs from other parts of Ekurhuleni. They play their home games at the Kwa-Thema Sports Complex, which Ditle says is not exactly ideal, given the facility’s substandard state.
“We’ve been having challenges with our facilities, obviously, hoping that CSA (Cricket South Africa) can come to play the part in assisting us with the facilities. Because recently, during this lockdown, we’ve had about two break-ins, where they broke into our clubhouse and they took some of the furniture that’s stored in the clubhouse. So, if you can look at the surrounding of the Complex, anyone can move in and out of there as they please, you know; our facilities are not really protected.
“It moves us backwards because at the moment we are depending on the grant that the Easterns Cricket Union is providing us. I mean, they are also trying their level best, but it cannot cover everything that we would like to cover as a club. As an emerging club, we take initiatives of looking after kids, not only cricket-wise but there’s kids that are good in terms of academics and stuff like that. So we’re looking to venture in such things as soon as we get the right people and sponsorships, and people understand who we are and what we are about.”
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