The CSA Provincial T20 Cricketer of the Season award has brought relief and a much-needed confidence boost to the exciting batters’ Lerato Kgoatle, writes Ongama Gcwabe.

When the Provincial T20 competition got underway last season, no one would’ve thought that a Limpopo batsman would be amongst the top run scorers of the tournament.

Having blasted two centuries in the group stages, one against Mpumalanga and another against Western Province, Kgoatle was eyed out by the MSL teams but missed out to what was going to be a much needed career break.

Finally, Kgoatle received the recognition for his stellar performances in that tournament. The first recognition was when he was presented with a semi-pro contract by Western Province Cricket for the 2020/21 season.

“I’m really excited about this award as it gets me a step closer to opening a door that I thought by now would have been open for me in my career,” Kgoatle expresses his excitement in an exclusive interview with Cricket Fanatics Magazine.

“It will be one of my biggest motivation to keep working hard, to push through to the next level.”

Having missed out on being involved in the MSL last season, Kgoatle had lost hope that he would win the award at the CSA awards.

“Missing the MSL I just had a thought that I wouldn’t even be considered for it as the guys I was up against had a taste of MSL and franchise cricket but it is an honour to achieve it.”

Paul Adams shocked most fans in the country by including Kgoatle in his 11 contracted players for next season because Kgoatle had not played semi-pro cricket for a while.

But Adams’ decision has instilled hope and revived the ambitions of the 26-year-old batsman from Pretoria. 

“Its a dream come true because since I was 21, I wanted to play for this province as it is one of the best in SA cricket,” Kgoatle spoke about joining WP.

“I was thinking of taking a year off professional cricket and focus on my studies as I was offered a spot at UWC. I made a call to Paul Adams hoping to start over with academy cricket and work my way up so when he offered me a spot I couldn’t say no to working with one of the top class coaches there.

“[My goals for next season is] To work harder than before and hopefully put up very good performances there and to play for Cobras in the limited-overs and MSL as it is one of my dreams.”