Player Profile – Cayden Wilson (Pearson High)
There were cones at cover, point, and short third man. There was another one at mid-off and one more on the off-side boundary, representing a sweeper.
The scenario was that the match was evenly poised and Cayden Wilson needed to find boundary options to help his team get some momentum going. He was facing left-arm spin.
Coach Arno Jacobs and Wilson did this a lot. They commandeered the Metro Indoor Centre in Gqeberha for a couple of hours and created real-match scenarios for Wilson to problem-solve.
“The technical stuff is easy. Anyone can do batting drills over and over, for hours. The difficult part is applying that technique to match situations,” Jacobs explained.
He preferred the indoor centre because, unlike an outdoor net, there is enough space to have fielders or items represent fielders. Earlier in the session, Wilson was practicing his off-side batting, with fielders in the ring. He had a slip, mid-off, cover, extra cover, and one of either backward point or short third. The scenario was that his team had lost early wickets, and he had to consolidate under pressure. He had done well in that phase.
Now, Wilson reassessed his field. The presence of mid-off meant that he had to loft the ball if he wanted a boundary down the ground. That carried risk. So, when the delivery arrived, instead of going onto the front foot, Wilson went down on one knee and reverse-swept the ball behind him. The stroke was so fine it beat short third as it raced to the boundary.
On 19 January 2025, Wilson employed the reverse sweep twice and was rewarded with boundaries in both instances. Those were two of five fours the 17-year-old manufactured on his way to a brilliant 69 off 46 balls, which helped Pearson High School to a victory over Grey High School in the Eastern Province and Border regional final of the Schools SA20 tournament.
“I went out of my comfort zone and played shots I don’t often play in really hot and challenging weather conditions,” Wilson shared.
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Cayden Wilson never hesitated if the sport involved balls of some sort. However, the balls he was most drawn to were cricket balls. By the time he turned eight, the youngster had a sizeable cricket ball collection.
“He asked for a cricket ball each time we went to the shops. He loved them so much that he often fell asleep holding one,” Ernest, Wilson’s father recalled.
Ernest did not have much of a cricket career to talk about. He played a bit in school, then indulged in some club cricket, before he dropped the game after securing gainful employment. When he realised that his son loved the sport, he resolved to support him in every way he could.
If it meant buying him all the balls he wanted, Ernest would do so. He also didn’t ask his son to settle down when the boy elected to play with a soft ball, hitting it against a door, while the rest of the family watched TV.
Father and son convened in the backyard every day after they had returned from work and school respectively. Sometimes they took their sessions to the primary school, where there were better facilities than their lawn and there was less risk to windows. However, their primary training ground was the back garden.
Their throwdowns were such an institution that their neighbours could set their clocks by them. When Cayden Wilson was around nine years old, he was gifted a bat by one of their neighbours. The boy was moving up an age group and felt his bat was too small for him.
“The neighbour said ‘I see you guys playing every day and thought Cayden might like to have this bat’,” Ernest recalled.
Father and son accepted the bat with gratitude. It was a used willow, but not too worn. Ernest, who was no wizard in bat repairs, then spent about four hours refurbishing the bat and emblazoning it with his son’s favourite stickers: Kookaburra.
The bat made such a satisfying sound when the younger Wilson middled the ball. It felt so good that he tried to hit every ball into yards five houses away. That necessitated the construction of a backyard net. Ernest undertook the project. He had no construction experience. However, where there is a will there is a way, and he erected a decent net.
Ernest and Yolande Wilson confess to never having such opportunities in their youth. Their circumstances did not allow them to have sporting dreams. They made a conscious decision to do all they could to support their children if they showed interest in any sport, without putting pressure on them to excel.
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One of the highest compliments a coach can pay a young cricketer is to describe them as coachable. It is grand praise, a stirring tribute.
Granted, every teenage boy or girl who makes it into the first team is coachable and shows a level of dedication a few leagues ahead of everyone else. However, when a coach informs you that a player is coachable, they invoke a tone that only a trained ear can pick up – a tone that makes it clear that they are expressing something beyond words.
It was audible when Ryan Dods spoke of Cayden Wilson. It was also crystal clear when Jacobs described the youngster.
“You could always see, from the early days, that he was talented beyond his age. His batting was next level,” Dods shared.
He cast his mind back to an u10 match, when Wilson was nine years old. He watched the youngster race to a half-century at a rate quicker than the other batsmen. And before he knew what was going on, Wilson had cantered to 80, then 100. One of the coaches asked the youngster if he wanted to retire after the milestone. Wilson wanted to bat some more, and he eventually retired after he had passed the 150-run mark.
“He has always had a hunger to bat and score a lot of runs,” Dods shared. That hunger was what caught Jacobs’ eye when he started working with Wilson.
Most youngsters lose concentration if training sessions run for too long. During the lockdown, Dods had sessions with Wilson in the family’s backyard, and he always found the youngster waiting for him with a bat and balls. Sometimes he found him repairing the nets.
The Wilsons had a dog that enjoyed biting into the nets. Each time it damaged them, Wilson took it upon himself to repair them. One could see how serious he was about his cricket by the attention he paid to his repair work.
“He was always a keen cricketer. Sessions could go over an hour and Cayden would remain engaged throughout,” Jacobs reflected on those lockdown sessions.
When he and Wilson were not working on match scenarios, the coach and student discussed the game. Wilson asked questions and bounced ideas off the retired cricketer-turned-umpire. A key component of their talks was failure.
“I emphasise making good decisions on the field. However, I remind him that sometimes you can make a good decision but then get out. That’s cricket,” Jacobs shared.
The important thing is for Wilson to get into good positions and choose the right options, Jacobs said. Whatever happens after that is not in his power, and he has to learn to live with the result, good or bad.
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“My current role model would have to be Aiden Markram,” Wilson revealed. “There is just something about his technique that stands out for me. Also, even though he goes through a dip, he always finds a way to bounce back.
The Pearson High School star has taken a leaf out of the Aiden Markram book of resilience. He, too, has a way of bouncing back after setbacks.
In an u10 match, he was dismissed for a duck. The next day, the u11 team’s coach asked Ernest if the youngster could help make up the numbers for the side.
Wilson has never been one to go there to make up the numbers. He lives by the advice Arno Jacobs gave him. The coach told him: “Give your best all the time.”
Just before the u11 match, the coach asked for volunteers for the two opening batting slots. Wilson was the first one to shoot his hand up. He scored an unbeaten 111.
In September 2024, when Pearson faced off against Paarl Boys’ High in a declaration match. Wilson was undone by a peach of a delivery in the first innings for a single-digit score. When Pearson’s second innings came around, one of their regular openers had fallen ill. Charl van der Merwe, the 1st XI coach, asked if anyone was willing to move up the order to open the innings. Wilson put his hand up. He flayed 12 sixes and 11 fours as he charged his way to an unbeaten 129 off 57 balls in Pearson’s second innings.
“He is a fighter. He never lets anything get him down,” Ernest stated.
Wilson has amassed over 2 100 runs for the Pearson first team since making his debut at the age of 15. He recorded his maiden century in his fourth outing with the team, an outstanding 119.
“It is one of my favourite memories. I became the youngest player to score a century for the school with that ton,” Wilson explained.
The batting-allrounder might just end up as one of the leading run-scorers in the history of Pearson High School. However, he has loftier ambitions than just being a legendary Pearson cricketer.
“As any young cricketer [would love to do], I would love to represent my country one day. Obviously, though, there’s room for only so many players, so I would like to play cricket wherever I get the best opportunities at the highest level possible,” he shared.
He understands that the path will not be easy. His coaches have shared with him the demands of professional cricket. He has also learned from past international stars.
He has read Keppler Wessels‘ autobiography from cover to cover. It was a hand-me-down from Ernest. He has devoured Faf du Plessis’s and AB de Villiers’ books. He picks up lessons in every form they come to him. He is braced for the tough moments ahead.
The teenager has proved himself to be more than competent at every level. He was named the CSA u16 Player of the Week in 2023 and he represented Eastern Province at the Khaya Majola Week last year.
Reflecting on his provincial journey, he said: “I have a few highlights. One of them was when I was selected for the SA Colts side [in 2024], as well as the [Eastern Warriors] Cubs team, and then scoring an unbeaten 75 against Southern Superstars.”
A solid foundation has been laid, but Cayden Wilson is just getting started.
