Teenager George van Heerden managed to turn heads within the cricketing fraternity in South Africa last month when he outscored his rivals in prolific fashion at the Cubs Week in Stellenbosch.
Van Heerden, who represented the Warriors Cubs, scored a sublime average of 150.00 in his five innings, having racked up scores of 71 not out, 100 not out, 81 not out, 45 and 3 respectively.
Unfortunately the team hadn’t achieved as much glory during the week, winning only one of their five games and placing fifth out of the six franchises.
However, the Eastern Cape franchise managed to contribute three players to the South African U19 squad, one of whom was Van Heerden. The other two were Jade Smith and Joshua Stevenson.
Van Heerden, who is currently in matric at Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, noted before the week-long tournament that it’d be important for him to simplify his game rather than to make monumental adjustments in order to shine at a higher level.
“It came a lot down to my preparation,” Van Heerden told Cricket Fanatics Magazine. “The way I prepared and trained leading up [to it], I was able to back myself and my game plan.
“When I got there I just needed to keep it simple and not get too far ahead of myself. When you get too far ahead of yourself it can get very dangerous as a cricketer.
“I just tried to do the basics as well as I could and took it step-by-step.”
This manner of easing into the week in a non-panicked and poised way proved to be a revelation for Van Heerden, who took part in his second Cubs Week this year.
He learned how to downplay the preconceived notion of a player needing to “change a lot of things” when making a step-up to a higher level. All he rather needed to do was to stick to his natural game.
“All I needed to do was to simplify my game even further and just play the way I had been playing before, even at school level because that’s obviously what got me selected [in the first place].
“That’s obviously not always the case, because some things may need to be fixed at a higher level if it gets exposed.
“But for me it was more about keeping everything super basic and simple,” he said, adding that mental-toughness was more important in terms of preparation than physical attributes.
Having competed in his second Cubs Week also provided him with the necessary experience of what it takes to flourish at a higher level.
“I almost knew that if I kept it basic then I’ll be giving myself the best possible chance. It came a lot down to the mental [aspect].”
Van Heerden said the main differences between the standards of school and provincial cricket was not necessarily facing bowlers with more turn or pace, but it was rather about the finer variations of consistencies that were imposed on the field.
“The main difference was consistency and bowlers bowling more to their plans. A pace bowler at the Cubs Week won’t bowl as many bad balls in an over and will hit the top of off [stump] a lot more than maybe a schoolboy bowler would be able to.
“It’s about the guys who do those simple skills better and for me as a batter, it’s about the bowlers setting smarter fields and being able to bowl better to their plans.”
Van Heerden described the call-up to the national U19 side as “one of my dreams come true” and said he’ll continue to back his abilities as he did at the Cubs Week.
“Some of my friends have played before me and [some] Grey old boys have told me about their experiences they had [in the SA U19 side].
“When I heard that, I realized it’s been one of my biggest dreams to play for this team. I felt ecstatic, to be honest.”
With the squad being selected more or less evenly from the different franchises, Van Heerden said the crop of players strikes a healthy balance.
“At the Cubs Week we were all enemies, but now, playing for the same team, it will be awesome. It’s an awesome opportunity to see how the different guys view the game differently.
“It will be interesting to see how the inland guys approach the game, considering the wickets they play on, as opposed to us from the coast.”
The SA U19 side will be playing against semi-pro cricket sides. All the provinces around the country were divided into factions to participate in once-off pool contests, with the format being re-structured due to the pandemic.
The national U19 outfit were grouped with Northerns, Western Province and Northern Cape in Pool C where they will all play each other in a round-robin phase in Kimberley, which explains their need to be placed in isolation bubbles this week before they can start playing.
They are each set to play two three-day games and three one-day games and the SA U19 side will kick off their campaign against Northerns from March 16 to 18, before playing their first one-day game against WP on March 21.
Van Heerden aims to continue “trusting my processes” in the readjusted competition, while backing himself and “giving myself the best opportunities I can to help the team get over the line”.
Looking ahead to after school, Van Heerden said he has dreams of pursuing cricket as a profession, rather than “sitting behind a desk in an office”.
“I just love the game – I’ve always loved the game. If I can I want to try to take cricket as far as I possibly can after school,” he said, adding that he also hopes to “study somewhere while playing the game” in order to formulate a back-up plan.
Photo: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix
