Tour Special South Africa 2012: Ons gaan in die Kaap ... - kon HCVV

Diepput in the coming months, and will
be open for donations between 16:00 and
17:00 every Friday. Staal’s son Tonny is
captain of the touring side that will, it is
hoped, hand over the materiel from the
container in South Africa next year. The
tour will be his first experience of cricket
outside Europe, although he has been on
Dutch Lions tours to England.
“I know it will be very different, and a real
challenge. The weather and the playing
conditions will be different, and the
approach of our South African opponents
will be different as well. Playing on turf
pitches will be a novelty in itself, and
we’ll learn a lot about the South African
approach to the game, and about how it
feels to play in a country where cricket is a
majority sport.”
The HCC side will play against school
teams in various parts of the country,
and the programme will include a match
against a national development squad,
which may well prove to be their most
testing challenge.
Dutch teams have been involved in social
programmes in the past: the 2009 na-
tional side, warming up for the World Cup
qualifier, ran a coaching session at the
township of Khayalitsha, near Cape Town,
and HCC’s own exchange programme,
launched last year, had as one of its goals
the provision of opportunities for young
South African cricketers to gain experience
in Europe.
But this campaign is something different,
and the Den Haag club and its sponsors
deserve full support from the Dutch
cricketing community.
December 2011 TOUR SPECIAL SOUTH AFRICA
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