Breetzke named Under 19 player of the year at CSA breakfast awards

Cricket365
June 2, 2018

Cricket South Africa has hosted its annual CSA Breakfast Awards where the stars of amateur cricket were honoured in a lavish ceremony at Inanda Club in Johannesburg.

The Awards Breakfast commemorates the accomplishments of the steadfastly growing talent in the country as CSA continues to drive its vision of making cricket a truly national sport of winners.

Janneman Malan claimed double honours as he walked away with the Student Cricketer of the Year and the Sunfoil Three-Day Cup Cricketer of the Year awards for his outstanding efforts with the bat in hand.

Stacey Lackay’s star continued to rise this season. She received the CSA Women’s Provincial Cricketer of the Year accolade after her all-round performances helped Western Province win the CSA Women’s Week in March. Those same efforts earned her a Momentum Proteas debut against Bangladesh last month.

South Africa under-19s star, Matthew Breetzke was named the U19 Cricketer of the Year after an exceptional season with the bat. Sinethemba Qeshile returned the Khaya Majola Week Player of the Tournament honours, while James Ritchie claimed Schools T20 Cricketer of the Year.

After another exciting season of club cricket that showed the great talent that continues to prevail across the country, it was a pleasure for CSA to name Assupol Tuks’ Niel Brand as the Momentum National Club Championships Player of the Tournament and Bobbies Cricket Club’s Dewald Pretorius, the Multiply T20 Community Cup’s Cricketer of the Year.

The Regional Performance Centres and Hubs stationed across South Africa continue to produce young, budding talent. Some players have even earned selection for their respective provincial teams and took part in this season’s Momentum National Weeks. These success stories would not have been possible if it were not for the hard-working coaches and volunteers at these Centres. The Pitchvision RPC and Hubs Coach of the Year award this year went to Elridge Booysen for his work in the South Western Districts.

“Congratulations to all our award winners who keep the spirit of our amateur game so strong,” commented CSA Acting Chief Executive Thabang Moroe. “And a special word of congratulations to those who have had to overcome disabilities to be honoured here today.

“We can be very happy with the strength of our various development programmes that play a vital part in our talent identification pipeline. It is worth recording that Wiaan Mulder, Heinrich Klaasen and Lungi Ngidi were all award winners at last year’s breakfast function. Since then we have seen three of our under-19 youngsters honoured with inclusion in the ICC select XI chosen at the recent under-19 World Cup while Laura Wolvaardt has established herself as a star in our Momentum Proteas squad as a teenager.

“A special word of thanks also to all our sponsors and particularly KFC for their support of this function as well as the KFC Mini-Cricket Programme which is the best of its kind to be found anywhere in the world and is the launch pad for our young cricketers to live their dreams,” concluded Mr. Moroe

Tonight, the cricket family will gather at the Sandton Convention Centre, to pay tribute to the stars of professional cricket at the 2018 SA Cricket Awards Gala Dinner. The ceremony will be broadcast live on SuperSport 2 at 20:00 (SAST).

Full list of 2018 CSA Breakfast Awards winners

Mini-Cricket Coach of the Year – Eunice Gonyela (Eastern Province)

Mini-Cricket Co-ordinator of the Year – Nation Ntlame (North West)

U15 Player of the Tournament – Christiaan Oberholzer (Northerns)

U17 Player of the Tournament – Bryce Parsons (Gauteng)

CSA Learners with Special Education Needs Player of the Tournament – Ziaan van Aswegen (Gauteng)

CSA Girls U19 Player of the Tournament – Nadine de Klerk

Khaya Majola Week Player of the Tournament – Sinethemba Qeshile (Border)

U19 Cricketer of the Year – Matthew Breetzke (Eastern Province)

Schools T20 Cricketer of the Year – James Ritchie (KwaZulu-Natal Inland)

CSA Blind Cricketer of the Year – Asanda Bidla (Gauteng)

CSA Deaf Cricketer of the Year – Dudley Rossouw (Northerns)