Cricket South Africa (CSA) today hosted its annual CSA Breakfast Awards in association with KFC, where the stars of amateur cricket were honoured for their stellar performances over the past 12 months.

The Awards Breakfast commemorates the accomplishments of the blossoming talent in the country as CSA continues to drive its vision of making cricket a truly national sport of winners.

In a lavish ceremony at the Maslow Times Square Hotel in Pretoria, 25 awards were handed out, with the big winner being South Africa Under-19 captain Bryce Parsons of Central Gauteng, who walked away with two prizes.

The 18-year-old all-rounder was named Coca-Cola U19 Cricketer of the Year for his efforts with the national team and also collected the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week Player of the Tournament.

The KFC Mini-Cricket coach of the year award went to Marelise Lombard from Central Gauteng Lions who has served the programme with composure over the years, while the KFC Mini- Cricket Co-ordinator was scooped by Eastern Province’s Gugu Ndulama.

Neil Brand of Northerns bagged the CSA Student Cricketer of the Year prize, while his former coach at the union, JP Triegaardt, who has left over the winter to rejoin Northern Cape, picked up the Pitchvision Senior Provincial Coach of the Year title.

Northerns also swept the women’s awards with Nadine de Klerk named CSA Girls U19 Player of the Tournament for her supreme all-round efforts during the competition. Her more senior compatriot Sune Luus, who also captained the Proteas Women in 2019, was voted CSA Women's Provincial Cricketer of the Year.

The CSA Three-Day Provincial Cup and Provincial One-Day Cricketers of the Year went to Glenton Stuurman of Eastern Province and Mpilo Njoloza of Western Province respectively.

There were joint winners in the Kemach JCB Groundsman of the Year category for the first time with Bethuel Buthelezi and Evan Flint securing the award for their outstanding work in keeping the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in a world-class state.

“Congratulations to all our award winners. They are the individuals who keep the spirit of our amateur game so strong. And a special word of congratulations to those who have had to overcome disabilities to be honoured here today. We can be very happy with the strength of our various development programmes that play a vital part in our talent identification pipeline,” commented CSA Chief Executive Thabang Moroe.

“A special word of thanks also to all our sponsors and particularly KFC for their support of this function as well as the KFC Mini-Cricket Programme which is the best of its kind to be found anywhere in the world and is the launch pad for our young cricketers to live their dreams,” concluded Mr. Moroe.

“At KFC we believe the secret recipe for success lies in nurturing South Africa’s great talents and building lasting partnerships that make this programme possible,” commented Dhruv Kaul, Chief Marketing Officer at KFC.

“2019 marks a remarkable 10-year partnership milestone and we are excited to celebrate the 2018/19 KFC Mini-Cricket Coach and Co-ordinator of the Year winners. Marelise and Gugu are true examples that sheer hard work and determination drives positive change and impact in local communities. We also thank our many volunteers who continue to be the heart of the programme, making it a success in every corner of the country.

“Through our partnership with Cricket South Africa, the KFC Mini-Cricket programme will continue to thrive, uplift communities, nurture and produce tomorrow’s heroes and supporters of South African cricket,” he added.

The main CSA Professional Awards Dinner will be televised live on SuperSport 2 from 20h00 tonight.

Fans will be able to follow the live action across CSA’s online social platforms www.facebook.com/cricketsouthafrica; www.twitter.com/officialcsa and Instagram (@cricket_south_africa), the official hash tag for the event is #CSAawards19.

2019 CSA Breakfast Awards Winners