SA U19 team balancing World Cup with education in camp

Basson will be a matric pupil this year along with other members of the team and has allayed any fears that their education might suffer while on national duty, putting complete trust in Lara van der Dussen – the designated team educator in camp.

Basson says she makes the work a lot easier for them to balance the two.

"Balancing some school work could be quite difficult but luckily Lara is excellent in managing the boys with school work and studying. She makes our lives easier by giving us the opportunity to focus on the cricket while still getting us through school."

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While on the subject of learning, Basson says they took a lot of lessons from their recent Youth Series against India, where they were whitewashed 3-0 in Benoni.

The last match was the worst of the lot, where they were on the receiving end of a 233-run defeat at Willowmoore Park.

"That last match was just an off day, but credit to the Indian batsmen, they batted beautifully by putting away the bad balls and making it really difficult to bowl at them.

"In terms of the first game, I was nice and patient and consistent. I'm looking to take the confidence from that first game and the lessons of the last one into this World Cup."

He was also confident that they have prepared adequately for the tournament in the two neighbouring countries, and expects that there will be some rain during some of the matches which might affect how they do things there.

South Africa departed for Windhoek yesterday and will play Sri-Lanka and Australia on Sunday and Wednesday respectively in two warm-up matches, before getting their campaign underway against Afghanistan next week Friday.