‘Cricket gave me everything’: South African sports star brings township children into the game – The Guardian

Gary Kirsten was a top international player and coach but rates his work in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha as one of the highlights of his cricketing career
Photographs by Chris de Beer-Procter
It’s just after 3pm on a Friday and 22-year-old Sinelethu Yaso is in her happy place. Her spotless cricket whites pop against the synthetic green turf, while the upbeat rhythms of kwaito music waft on the breeze as she ambles in to bowl.
Beyond the boundary, in the Makhaza area of Khayelitsha township, in South Africa’s Cape Flats, laundry flutters on a wire fence and the September sun reflects off a corrugated-iron lean-to.
The tall young woman has been told to go easy on her opponents – an under-13 boys’ team – but Yaso’s impeccable line and length are enough to induce three consecutive swings and misses.
On the fourth ball of the over, the batsman finally makes contact. All he can do is spoon it up to Yaso, who nonchalantly takes the catch.
Watching the game from his plastic chair on the sidelines is Gary Kirsten, an ex-South African test cricketer and international coach. “There’s some incredible talent in the townships,” he says. “What’s lacking is opportunity.”
The players on the pitch are all beneficiaries of a not-for-profit organisation started by Kirsten in 2014. Establishing a charitable foundation after retiring from the game is not unusual – but Kirsten’s approach is.
Instead of trying to find talented players in the townships and then give them scholarships to wealthy schools or universities in privileged areas, the Catch Trust is all about bringing world-class facilities into the townships.
Yaso was first introduced to cricket in 2015. “My dance teacher was also a cricket coach,” she says. “One day I walked past the nets, and he asked me if I wanted to bowl.”
Yaso – who has always been a head taller than her peers – proved to be a natural. Under the tutelage of Babalwa “Babs” Zothe, who has led the women’s programme for four years, Yaso has risen swiftly through the ranks, playing for a string of age-group teams before being chosen to represent the Western Province senior team in 2021.
“At the beginning I felt pressure, like I had to perform,” she says, on playing at Newlands, Cape Town’s international ground. “But after time I got comfortable. I know how the pitch moves … it suits my style actually.”
Yaso comes to Catch almost every day, whether or not she has a practice session: “I can’t imagine my life without cricket.
“It wasn’t a childhood dream,” she says, “but now with the crew around me, it is more than cricket – it’s like I’ve made family.”
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It began in 2014, when Kirsten teamed up with Madoda Mahlutshana, then principal of Chris Hani secondary school, to tour eight schools in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town.
“I’d just finished coaching the Proteas [South Africa men’s cricket team], so I had some time on my hands,” says Kirsten. “I thought there was an opportunity to see how this sport of ours was working in the townships near my home.”
Kirsten was disappointed to discover that none of the schools he visited played cricket – or any sport for that matter. After speaking to the schools’ governing bodies and using his cricketing contacts to secure funding, he got cricket nets built at five schools in the area and three coaches employed.
Over the years, Kirsten has improved the facilities – with the artificial pitch laid in 2020 and a three-lane indoor cricket centre a year later – and expanded the programme to include tutors who help the children with their homework and frequent workshops on topics such as mental and reproductive health and financial wellness. Now, 18 coaches and more than 400 players aged six to 19 make use of the centre six or seven days a week throughout the year.
As Zothe, the girls’ coach, says: “Most of those kids aren’t going to make a living from cricket, but they are all benefiting from cricket. This facility is like a dream … it is a home for all of us.”
Kirsten says: “I was lucky in that cricket gave me everything, now’s my chance to give something back.”
One of the opportunities that cricket gave Kirsten was the chance to tour internationally and experience different countries and cultures. While elite schools in South Africa regularly take cricket teams on tour overseas, township cricketers are lucky if they ever leave their own neighbourhood.
In 2019, during the men’s World Cup, Kirsten took a Catch Trust boys’ team to the UK. “It was one of the highlights of my cricketing life,” says Kirsten – a man who has scored 21 test centuries and coached India to the World Cup title.
Next June, to coincide with the Women’s T20 World Cup, he will be taking a girls’ team to the birthplace of cricket. “I’ve always wanted to go to England, to Lord’s,” says Yaso, who is hoping to be picked as a senior player or mentor. “It’s a dream I have been waiting for … it means everything.”
Zothe is equally excited. “It’s going to be a great cultural exchange. The girls will get to experience British culture and they will also get a chance to share their culture,” she says.
“We cannot wait – it’s going to be the greatest experience for the kids. And for me as well.”
Zothe is also emotional. “As a coach, it’s a privilege to have someone like Gary to call on,” she says. “The fact that Gary built the facilities here, in Khayelitsha, means the world to us. It means that he values a black child and the environment they come from.”

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