I caught a few Varsity Cricket matches and I must say I was half impressed. I wanted to watch more but I was drenched in Momentum One Day Cup glory. Anyway, this is based on what I saw and seen by those around me.
I won’t say it was a flop because it wasn’t. Instead, UP-Tuks would probably kill me for any negative comments I might make. I do know how to give credit where credit is due and I believe UP-Tuks played remarkable cricket. They never took their eye on the prize. So congratulations to the Inaugural 2015 Varsity Cricket Champions!!!
IMMEDIACY
Some might have appreciated the immediacy in Varsity Cricket but I certainly did not. Too much cricket cramped into 5 days in Potchefstroom. Maybe that’s why some teams were struggling to score runs, they were exhausted. Continuous days of 20 over cricket in the blazing sun are not child’s play. You can go outside for 1 minute and return showing signs of heatstroke.
I missed a lot of the matches; maybe if they were spaced out more, or more days were dedicated to it like Varsity Rugby and Varsity Football, I could have watched more.
TROPHY
Through the telly the trophy looked beautiful, I actually loved it. But, I have a few complaints. When it was handed to UP-Tuks, it looked small. It needs to be a bit bigger, just by a few centimetres. Plus, why was it written CHAMPION instead if CHAMPIONS?
ADVERTISING
Last year when the tournament was first advertised, I was well aware of when it will take place. However, closer to the date, I hardly saw any ads that reminded me that the tournament is close. The people in charge of adverts should do a better job at promoting the tournament. For instance, if someone who sits in front of the telly all day watching sports did not know about Varsity Cricket until it began, how would someone who spends all day at work know about it?
CAPS
Every tournament usually has sponsors and Varsity Cricket wasn’t any different. Varsity Cricket was sponsored by electronic company SAMSUNG, clothing store Edgars active, food chain STEERS and bank FNB. Mentioning these brands brings me to my next point. With such names on the cricket kits, how come cricketers who played exceptionally well were only handed caps for their efforts?
UJ
I went to UJ, so I know about orange overload. The UJ cricket team looked like designer prisoners. They need to tone down the orange. No offence to the person or people who came up with that kit but wow – headlights. The little design on the side was beautiful. Maybe a black kit with the orange emblem would have looked a whole lot better. Instead of the little design, the two orange birds on the emblem would look sweet. Or you can ignore my suggestions and go the ECB route. The same tops but different coloured trousers.
I won’t even get into what I think of those umpire shirts. I think everyone can draw their own conclusions.
