Gideon Bruwer from Griqualand West will be playing in his second Coca-Cola Khaya Majola
GM Bruwer has represented his province, Griqualand West, at every age group level from under-11 to under-19 and he will captain the side at this year’s Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week in Durban.
It will be his second appearance at the week and he says last year’s tournament went relatively well for him personally, but not so well for the Griquas team.
“The problem last year was that there was little teamwork in the squad,” he said. “The senior player in the team relied too much on Diego Rossier who was player of the year in 2011. Diego did not have a great tournament with the bat and the team suffered.”
What GM learned from Diego was how to strategise as captain. “During a game Diego was brilliant in identifying other players’ weaknesses and taking advantage of them. Diego was very good at giving me confidence and getting the best out of me. I would like to do the same for my teammates this year.”
“This year’s team is far better than last year. Even though the guys come from different schools we have been part of the Griquas setup for years so we know each other very well and this has helped us become friends and help build team spirit,” he said.
This year the team took part in the Griquas high-performance setup that started in March. Once the team was selected the coaches concentrated on one-on-one sessions to help us with our technical abilities. Recently the team got together for team training sessions and we have had 2 warm-up games.
The objective of the warm-up games was to work on combinations and to see who bowls or bats well with whom. There were a lot of lessons learned and everyone knows what their role is in the team.
This year GM has battled to score runs. He started the season off well with 3x 50s in a row and a 128 in a school game after Cubs week but since then he has gone through a dry patch. Recently he hit 177 runs in a game for his club team West End which hopefully means that he has got his form back.
Earlier in the year, GM was recognized as a potential Coca-Cola U-19 player for the 2014 U-19 World Cup. He played for the combined schools team against the 2013 Coca-Cola® SA U-19s and where he has learned a lot and made many friends.
“I really enjoyed Ray Jennings’ training sessions. Even though they were tough they were very informative. I became friends with Tiaan Koekemoer, Kagiso Rabada and Clyde Fortuin and am looking forward to playing against Kagiso and Clyde again this year. “
GM says he does not want to look too far into the future and has not set himself personal goals. He wants the team to do well and one of the ways for his team to do well is for him to do well. The focus is team first,” he says.
His school, Northern Cape High, produces so many good cricketers because of the personal attention given to the players. He gives credit to his coaches and managers, Mr Labuschagne Mr Burger and Mr Bredenkamp for what they have done for him.
