CRICKET LEINSTER CONTINUES STRONG SOUTH AFRICAN EXCHANGE PROGRAMME LINKS

Nine Leinster schools’ cricketers are currently residing in South Africa taking advantage of their school Transition Year, spending time at a variety of cricket playing schools around the country.

For many years now Cricket Leinster has assisted young cricketers to find appropriate schooling arrangements in South Africa. The experience gained is invaluable with most returning as better players and having experienced first-hand the strong South African schools’ cricket programme.

The Durban based boys were involved in a two-day High Performance training camp at Glenwood High school several hours after arriving at King Shaka airport. The boys will be at the school until early March and will have use of very impressive training facilities during their 8-week stay. Fixtures in the coming weeks will be against Clifton, Northwood, St Charles, Michaelhouse, DHS, Westville & Pietermaritzburg College the alma matter of Merrion CC’s John Anderson.

Head of Sport at Glenwood is Zayne Bux who is delighted to be hosting more Leinster cricketers this year. ‘As well as the boys being involved in our schools’ programme they also get to train with a local Academy during the day time. We really enjoy the visiting Irish boys each year who fit in so well at Gibson House with the other students. We will be watching the u19 World Cup closely as both Bruce Whaley and Sebastian Dijkstra have spent time with us here in Durban previously’.

Railway Union’s Ted Hasler & Malahide’s Akshat Sudhaharan made their debuts for Muir College 1st XI on their pre-season tour to Union High School, Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. Four games in four days (all time cricket format) was a great introduction for both boys at Muir whose coaches this year include Thabile Dyile, Stefan Tait & Sheldon Pillay. Both boys also played Muir’s first competitive fixture against Woodridge at Uitenhage last weekend.

Deputy Principal Lyntin Gouws was delighted to see more cricketers from Leinster spending time at Muir College. ‘We remember well hosting Ross Garvey from St Michael’s College and Pembroke CC way back in 2002 in what was the first year of the programme – we have had many fine cricketers across with us since and it is pleasing to see quite a few of these featuring in the Ireland senior squad at present – Balbirnie, Dockrell, McCarthy, Tucker etc. We hope Ted and Akshat enjoy and value their stay with us at present and we look forward to them both adding and contributing to our continued cricket efforts at the school’.

Fixtures in the coming weeks will involve games against other strong Eastern Cape cricket schools like Grey High, Union High, Brandwag, Queen's College, Daniel Pienaar, St Andrew’s, Pearson and Sterling High.

Merrion’s Oliver Molins and Balbriggan’s Ryan Keenan arrived to Johannesburg last week and will spend time at the prestigious St Stithians school whose cricket is headed up by former Pembroke CC professional Wim Jansen. The visiting Leinster boys will be hosted by the families of u16 cricketers Ontathile Moipalai and Callum Buckley. In a recent Test match, no fewer than four former St Stithians pupils lined out for South Africa – Kwena Maphaka, Ryan Rickelton, Kagiso Rabada & Wiaan Mulder. Since then, another former Saints student Luhan-dre Pretorius has played for South Africa scoring a hundred on his Test debut in Bulawayo. Luhan-dre had a memorable season at Malahide CC as part of this exchange programme.

On catching up with this writer recently in South Africa, Luhan-dre was full of positivity and reflected with such fondness of his own trip to Ireland four years ago.

‘In June 2022, aged just 16, I arrived to the beautiful village of Malahide in North Dublin. I got to practice straight away with both the men's and youth squads and as a result I quickly got to know many of the members of Malahide Cricket Club. On June 19th, the club selected me on the men's 3rd team initially and my first fixture was away at Wexford Wanderers where I scored 63. My highest score was 171 at North County and I made one Premier league appearance scoring 19 against Balbriggan. I keep in touch with the Langan family who were such excellent hosts and of course Matthew Langan, Hugo Fitzgerald, Sam O'Brien &  Charlie Askew etc etc who I got very friendly with during my time there. I really enjoyed the bit of coaching I did with the younger Malahide boys and girls that summer and of course the groundwork we all committed to for international games under the watchful eye of head groundsman Phil Frost. I have been following the clubs progress of late and do hope I can pay a return visit there in the not too distant future’.

Commenting on the arrival of two more Leinster cricketers to St Stithians, Jansen was clearly excited and is looking forward to offering the boys lots of meaningful training along with match opportunities. ‘We welcome again more boys from Leinster this year and we do hope they enjoy their stay with us. There was to be a third, but Callum Armstrong got called up to the Ireland u19 World Cup squad so was unable to spend time with us this year. We will be following Olly Riley, Rob O’Brien and Reuben Wilson from their games in Namibia who all spent time with us here at St Stithians over the past two years and of course Tim Tector, another recent visitor who will be involved in the ICC T-20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India in February’.

Below is a list of the Leinster players currently in South Africa:

• Ted Hasler (East Glendalough school & Railway Union CC) & Akshat Sudhaharan (Royan School, Cavan & Malahide CC) at Muir College, Uitenhage, Eastern Cape.
• Charlie Carolan (St Mary’s College & Leinster CC), Donnacha Cosgrave (Blackrock College & Pembroke CC) & Aryan Mulajker (CUS & Pembroke CC) at Glenwood High School, Durban.

• Ryan Keenan (Ardgillan Community College & Balbriggan CC), Oliver Molins (Blackrock College & Merrion CC) & Ronan Adam (CUS & Leinster CC) at St Stithians College, Johannesburg.
• Peter Le Roux (Blackrock College & Railway Union CC) at Grey College, Bloemfontain.

Brian O’Rourke

January 2026