U19 coach Malibongwe Maketa disappointed with poor World Cup showing

Maketa was speaking after they lost their final match of the competition to Sri-Lanka by 5 wickets, meaning they return home with only one win to their name against Tanzania. 

The coach says they did have moments where they could have capitalised but didn’t, and expressed disappointment that they didn’t handle the tough moments too well.

"Yeah very very disappointing the way we handled the tough moments, that's probably the glaring moments of the whole campaign. We had moments in most games where we could really wrestle the game and bully and take control of the game and unfortunately in those tough moments we were not up for it and that's probably the most disappointing thing about the whole campaign," Maketa said.

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While they didn’t quite get the results they were looking for, there were some individuals who stood out. 

Maketa says they will be supporting those youngsters in the next few months to help them with the transition between school and professional cricket.

"Yeah the Under-19 programme is quite a vast programme in a sense of supporting the players coming through from school cricket and graduating to playing Under-19 SA level,” the coach added.

“So, when it comes to players like Jason Rowles and also the way Bayanda [Majola] bowled, the way JJ [Basson] bowled and the whole group, we're gonna keep supporting them in terms of helping them bridge the gap between school cricket and professional cricket. 

“So, we're gonna be there for them for the next eight months or so, until they shift away from the Under-19 programme. We do have opportunities for them to again showcase their skills in the second division competition, so hopefully by then the learnings would have taken place and they can really showcase their skill because we believe we have a lot of skill within the group."