Former Dolphins coach, Grant Morgan, suggests that club cricket is deprived of youngsters and that the system needs to blood in more youngsters at club level, writes Ongama Gcwabe.
The 2021/22 season is a thing of the past but has taught us a lot about where we are as a cricketing nation.
The Cricket Fanatics Magazine team has put together a body of work that gives an idea of where we are and where we need to go looking ahead to the 2022/23 season.
To get an idea of how club cricket is doing post-COVID, we spoke to Jendamark United Cricket Club’s coach, Grant Morgan. Morgan joined the club in the 2019/20 season, at the peak of COVID. They finished second in this season’s Premier League 50-over competition.
Club cricket is important given the new domestic structure that was implemented this past season. Club cricket now feeds talent to the Colts teams and then straight to Division One or Division Two teams.
Morgan gave us his insight on the current state of club cricket level.
“Our teams are getting older,” Morgan expressed in an exclusive interview with Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
“The average age of our Premier League is probably over 32. These are good players but we need to develop more youngsters in club cricket.”
In Gqeberha, seeing players score multiple hundreds at club level, is not something that happens often enough. In his two and a half seasons working at club level, coach Morgan has noticed the exact same trend.
“I’m concerned at the moment in the Eastern Cape, especially from a batting point of view,” said Morgan.
“It’s also conditions related but we’re not batting all the overs. You don’t want your 50-over game to be over before half-past one in the afternoon. You want both teams to bat all their overs and have a competitive game.
“You do get those but they’re not happening as often as we want. We’re going to have to work hard because our premier league has been disappointing.”
The talent in the Eastern Cape has never been in doubt but the performances at club level, in particular, can improve now that we are moving on from many COVID related restrictions.
“The talent is there. We’ve had challenges earlier where our facilities were destroyed during COVID,” Morgan added.
“So we had to build a whole new training setup. It was challenging to develop skill because the facilities were not there earlier in the season.”
It is refreshing to see a coach of the calibre of Morgan working at club level. He not only coached at franchise level but also at the international level as well.
A coach with the CV that Morgan has, demands respect and knows how to work with players of different characters. Before COVID, Morgan was on a very different path in his career before eventually coming back to Gqeberha in 2020.
“I was in Scotland with the Scottish National team. Gerald (Majola) and I come a long way. We’ve always had this vision of me coming back and giving putting into the club.
“Also my mom was getting older and with COVID I had to look after her. So when the two met in the middle it was inevitable that I was coming back to give back to the club,” Morgan concluded.
