EXCLUSIVE | How SA20 is building South Africa's cricket future: Chris Morris explains
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "EXCLUSIVE | How SA20 is building South Africa's cricket future: Chris Morris explains")
EXCLUSIVE How SA20 is building South Africa's cricket future Morris explains Photograph: (AFP)
Former SA star Chris Morris tells WION how SA20 is building depth for South Africa's cricket future by pairing young talent with international legends.
Former South African all-rounder Chris Morris detailed how the country’s premier franchise-based T20 league, SA20, is doing more than just bringing crowds to the stadiums and glitz and entertainment for the fans. Ahead of its fifth edition in January next year, the six-team tournament brought several changes to its retention and auction policies. Elated about the league’s growth and what it has done for the players, South Africa’s Cricket Board (CSA) and their cricket ecosystem, Morris explained how it is building depth for the future in an exclusive chat with WION.
Morris tells WION that the young players rubbing shoulders with some of the best from the country and also overseas is doing more than just good for them. Explaining how previous challenges (regarding schedules) restricted their talents from growing into world-class match winners, Morris said SA20 is the one platform which has helped everyone overcome it.
“It's definitely building depth. You've got young players playing against the best in the country, first of all. In the past, sometimes our domestic leagues would clash with international cricket, and our international players wouldn't be there, or there'd be an IPL on, or there'd be another league on where players would be playing overseas.
“And what the SA20 has done is it's said, we're going to play all of our international players. So when you've got youngsters playing against the best that South Africa has, and obviously the best that some of the world has to offer, it's only going to make you better as a cricketer,” South African legend Chris Morris, in an interaction facilitated by SA20 ahead of the Season 5 Auction, said to WION.
‘Watching legends train will help young players grow’
Morris said thanks to the mandatory policy of having at least two Under-23 players in the squad for each franchise, those emerging from humble backgrounds get to share the dressing room with their idols.
Trending Stories
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
Morris, who once was the highest-paid overseas player in the IPL, said even watching those legends and training like them can convert the youngsters into match-winning products for the future.
Also read| World-class infra, science-backed coaching, and data: Blueprint for making India sports powerhouse
“And youngsters that are coming in, even if they don't play, they are sharing a changing room with players, world-class players, that they can see how they train, how they go about their business. And I think what you pick up quite quickly as a youngster is you go, you see the world-class player, and you go, that's the standard that I need to be at. We all do it as young cricketers.
“You watch how certain bowlers bowl, how they train, how bad it is, how many times they hit balls, how they go about their business. Are they in the gym? They watch the whole facet of what a player does. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of us fall short of, when we're young, we fall short of what we think we need to be doing as a cricketer,” Morris continued.
Heaping praises on how this T20 league in particular is helping the emerging talent grow leaps and bounds in the country, Morris said,
“When you've got those senior players or international players coming in, and you go, okay, that's the standard I need to be at if I want to play for South Africa and if I want to be as good as that person. And that creates depth because you take what you've learned from the SA20 and you take it into your domestic training, and the reality is that you go, right, I need to be like this if I want to play. And if you're taking that back to your franchise, all of a sudden, they're looking at the player that was playing at SA20, and they're going, well, that's how we need to train because that person at the top is training like that.
“And it's just a domino effect. And it's one thing that you will realise when you get older in cricket. There's always someone younger, stronger, fitter that wants it more than you.
“When you've got that going and a healthy cricket tournament and healthy cricket in the country, that's where you create the depth. And yeah, I think it's done an unbelievable job for that,” he concluded.
