Bakers Mini Cricket and Cricket South Africa hosted a Bakers Mini Cricket Festival in Paarl last week. As usual the Bakers Mini Cricket road show was met with delight by local children and teachers from the Boland region who spent an exciting afternoon in the sun playing cricket and enjoying Bakers biscuits. This festival however, was unique in that both South African and West Indian national women’s cricket teams took time out to make appearances at the festival and to assist in crafting the skills of young cricketers, the day after the South African team won the ODI series.
“It was fantastic to see the level of support shown by the South African Women’s team during our Bakers Mini Cricket festival,” said Darren Hampton, Bakers Mini Cricket Sponsorship Co-coordinator. “It is vital that the South African public pay tribute to the successes of our national teams. It is equally important that today’s sporting heroes contribute towards the making of future stars, and what better way than being involved in development at this level.”
For the past 26 years the Bakers Mini Cricket programme has been run in association with Cricket SA, and is the longest running developmental sports sponsorship in Africa. Today, over 100 000 children from over 5 000 schools are involved in the programme.
Participating children were thrilled to meet the national women’s cricket team, and many of the girls expressed that the experience was both inspiring and a significant highlight of their limited cricketing careers thus far. Hampton went on to say, “Days like today are a great indication of commitment to development and I speak on behalf of all those involved in Bakers Mini Cricket when I say that we are extremely grateful for their support and wish them the best of luck in future tournaments.”
Lets hope the aspiring cricketers who met them get to see the South African women’s national cricket team achieve great results going forward.
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To find out more about the Bakers Mini Cricket Programme and Bakers Bats for Charity:
www.bakersminicricket.co.za
