Jeppe is building towards greatness
Jeppe is one of the eight boys’ teams that will travel to the University of Pretoria to compete for the title at the Switch Schools SA20 Final Showdown, which takes place from 3-7 March.
The trip has been two-and-a-half years in the making and is one of the markers on Jeppe’s road to claiming a spot as one of the top cricket-playing schools in the Lions’ region.
“We want to be a premier cricket club in the country. We want to provide an experience for all of our 18 cricket teams to thrive,” Casey Arnold, the Jeppe u19 head coach, told SuperSport Schools Plus.
Arnold, who spearheads the ambitious programme, is a Jeppe old boy and captained the 1st XI in 2006. He said he is grateful that the school and their primary sponsor, Teljoy, have been on board with his ideas about how to elevate Jeppe’s cricket programme.
His most ambitious proposal was the construction of a facility for use during the winter months, which would enable the school’s cricketers to work on their game throughout the year. It has delivered encouraging results.
“We now have a forward-thinking winter programme that helps us to upskill our boys. Most of them come from good primary schools, but a good number of them also don’t play 50-over cricket. The winter programme helps us align the boys with our goals,” Arnold explained.
One of the first successes Jeppe had under Arnold’s guidance was lifting the Johnny Waite Trophy in 2023. It had been a 34-year wait since they last won it in 1989. The Black Caps have been on an upward curve ever since then.
Those two milestones are not the only notable achievements Jeppe has recorded over the past two-and-a-half years. In 2025, they finished third at the Wildeklawer North-South Tournament, which was their best showing yet in the high-quality T20 competition. They have also regularly recorded good results at the various festivals in which they have participated.
The biggest testament to Jeppe’s rising influence can be found in provincial and national cricket teams. The school had 19 representatives in the various Central Gauteng Lions cricket teams that competed in interprovincial weeks during the December holidays.
The Black Caps also had two players, Sipho Potsane and Munib Ayob, represent the Lions and the CSA Invitational side at the 2025 Khaya Majola Week. Ryan Young was selected for u19B team for the Regional Week, while Aiden Reyneke, Shreshth Kumar, and Reza Ayob were included in the Lions u17 Regional Week side.
Jeppe hasn’t focused only on the senior players. They have invested in younger talent, creating a pipeline for more of those players to make a smooth transition to the senior level in the future.
“We know it’s tough in Joburg, where there are several really good schools, and we are trying to elevate our programme until it reaches a point where we are one of the top schools,” Arnold said.
Nothing underscores the strength of Jeppe’s junior programme more than the large number of players who flew the school’s flag at junior inter-provincial tournaments.
The Black Caps had six representatives in the Lions u16 team that competed at the u16 National Week, namely: Zizi Mkhize, Lincoln Casias, Goolam Ahmed, Ethan Ferguson, and Phumelo Sekopane. Keegan Cockburn, meanwhile, made it to the u16 Regional Week.
They also had seven players flying the Jeppe flag high at the u15 Regional Week. Boitumelo Skunka, Artav Kathuria, and Liam Matjekane represented Lions Grey, while Ethan Matjekane and Letago Malepe were part of the Lions Blue team. Mohammed Ahmed and Mpho Mofokeng, represented the Lions’ Yellow and Orange sides, respectively.
While he is the face of Jeppe’s success, Arnold has enjoyed strong support. The institution has ensured that he has a solid and dependable team beside him, and he shares the load in the senior team with another Jeppe alumnus, Craig Templeton, who captained the 1st XI in 2015.
Arnold and Templeton constantly tap into the knowledge and experience of Roland Blanks, the school’s resident cricket professional. They also have Easterns’ veteran all-rounder, Grant Thomson, on board as a consultant. Retired first-class cricketer, Gionne Koopman, is in charge of the u15A team, while Byron Geyve and Chris van Der Merwe oversee the development of the u14A side.
“It helps that we have these coaches working full-time with our boys. They don’t just coach them, but help them in finding the right balance with their other commitments,” Arnold explained.
He said Jeppe’s presence at the Schools SA20 Final Showdown is not by chance, but an indication of how much the school’s cricket programme has progressed.
While earning themselves the right to play for a national title is the highlight of their programme work thus far, Arnold doesn’t consider it a destination. Rather, he said, it is an indication of their ambition.
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