Gary Kirsten takes cricket to Khayelitsha

In early 2019 Gary Kirsten got it into his head that he wanted to take a team of under-13 boys from his foundation in Khayelitsha on a tour of the UK during the Cricket World Cup.

Driving him was the knowledge that no youth township team from South Africa had ever toured internationally. “I thought about all the opportunities cricket had given me,” he says. “It seemed wrong that these kids should be denied that, just because they were born in a different part of the city.”

Which is not to say that making it happen was easy: “Never mind passports, some of the players didn’t have birth certificates.”

Despite his many achievements as a player and coach, the 2019 UK tour remains one of Kirsten’s most memorable cricketing experiences. The boys didn’t just play well (their only defeat came after “overindulging at the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet”) and get to watch (and meet) the Proteas; their eyes were also opened to a world where anything was possible. A world from which they’d previously been excluded.

As China Dyira, father of the team’s wicketkeeper-batsman Buhle Dyira, said: “You didn’t change the life of my boy only, you changed the life of me too.”

It all started in 2014, when Madoda Mahlutshana, the principal of Chris Hani High School, took Kirsten on a tour of eight schools in eastern Khayelitsha. “I’d just finished coaching the Proteas, 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.”

Imagine his dismay when he found that none of the schools played cricket — or any sport, for that matter. “My first feeling was disappointment,” he says. “But then I started thinking about what I could do.”

Working closely with Mahlutshana, and leaning on some of the contacts he’d made in a three-decade cricket career, Kirsten found funding to build cricket nets at five schools in the area. “Madoda really helped me to understand how to go about it,” says Kirsten. “I had to sit in front of the governing bodies and explain in great detail what I wanted to do. They were sceptical of this white guy with big ideas … And rightly so.”

Once the school governing bodies had been convinced, Kirsten turned his attention to sourcing equipment and training local coaches, who — as part of Kirsten’s focus on job creation — have always been paid for their time. Cricket proved an instant hit with the boys and girls of Khayelitsha, and soon the nets were full every afternoon of the week.

The standard of the game improved quickly, and Kirsten will never forget the day in 2015 when three of his players — Xolelwa Vintwembi, Bukhobakhe Masumpa and Siviwe Nkonzombi — qualified for Western Province age-group teams “There’s loads of talent in the townships,” he says. “What’s lacking is opportunity.”

By 2019, there were more than 300 children (and eight coaches) in the programme — but still something was missing. “We had nowhere to play matches,” says Kirsten. “Cricketers need to play regular matches.”

Instead of busing kids to grounds in more affluent areas, Kirsten had a dream of building a world-class field in Khayelitsha. He okayed the plan with Tamara Mnisi (who had taken over as principal of Chris Hani) and the school governing body, and secured R5m from HomeChoice, and South Africa’s first fully artificial field was unveiled in February 2020. The field is used six or seven days a week, all year round. There are now more than 450 girls and boys in the programme, and last year 17 CATCH Trust players made Western Province teams.

Kirsten has always emphasised that the facilities built by the CATCH Trust should be used for more than just cricket: partner organisations run programmes on everything from financial literacy to girls’ health.

But achieving genuine and meaningful transformation in cricket remains his priority. Kirsten has nothing against the scholarship model, which resulted in cricketers like Lungi Ngidi and Makhaya Ntini playing for the Proteas. But he is also aware of its limitations.

“The scholarship programme has worked for some, but you aren’t dealing with the systemic issue,” says Kirsten, explaining that Khayelitsha alone has 50 schools with 1,000 kids at each school. “Imagine what could happen if we built similar facilities all around the country.”

He adds: “Of course I’m inspired by the Siya Kolisi story. But I’m even more inspired by the Mfuneko Ngam story.” To this day, Ngam remains the only Protea to complete all his schooling in township schools. If the CATCH Trust has anything to do with it, he will not be the last.