SOUTH Africa’s university cricket teams are counting down the days until the first coin toss of the second edition of Varsity Cricket and the University of Pretoria (UP-Tuks) will begin their Varsity Cricket title defense with an extra notch in their belt.
UP-Tuks, who won the inaugural competition this year, also defended their Red Bull Campus Cricket Championship crown in India in October and will be in high spirits when the tournament kicks off on January 25, 2016.
Potchefstroom will once again play host to the exciting T20 tournament and the winners will go on to represent South Africa at the Red Bull Campus Cricket Championship – a global tournament for the best university teams from all over the world.
The Varsity Cricket tournament, which offers South Africa’s young stars a platform to show the country what they’re capable of, will last just five days – meaning non-stop play for the teams taking part.
The first season saw Jean Marais of Stellenbosch hit the only hundred of the tournament while former South Africa u.19 captain, Aiden Markram, put in a stellar performance for UP-Tuks with four half-centuries.
The bowlers showed that this is not just a batsman’s game and six of the top 10 wicket-takers had an average of below 20, an incredible achievement in the shortest format of the game.
The 2016 tournament will once again feature the Power Play Plus, an over in which runs count double and teams lose runs when there is a dismissal. This is just one way in which Varsity Cricket aims to offer an engaging platform for South Africa’s young sports stars and student audience.
Varsity Cricket is backed by Cricket South Africa (CSA) who views this as a fantastic opportunity for youngsters who are vying for a professional contract.
But it’s not just on the field where Varsity Cricket is doing things differently. The tournament also broke ground with its officials. For the first time in South African history, a female umpire, Carin van Deventer, officiated a televised game in the country. This underscores just how Varsity Cricket is breaking ground both on and off the pitch.
