Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Standard Bank honoured the Standard Bank Schools Pro20 Challenge winners, Hoërskool Menlo Park at a celebratory dinner held in Pretoria on Wednesday evening. Menlo Park walked away with the inaugural title in March as well as R100 000 to use towards development at the school.

Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO, said: “The Standard Bank Schools Pro20 Challenge is the only national coordinated schools Pro20 competition in South Africa, CSA is delighted to have found a willing backer in one of our top commercial partners, Standard Bank. Their support has enabled us to reach out to over 340 schools in the inaugural year of competition.

“CSA has been impressed by the talent on display in the Standard Bank Schools Pro20 Challenge and hope this tournament continues to produce young cricket stars. CSA would like to congratulate Hoërskool Menlo Park on winning this first edition.

“According to the recent BMI Junior Sporttrack report, Cricket participation has shown solid growth over the past year among juniors aged 13-18. The annual growth rate of 3.9% means that cricket remains one of the fastest growing mass participation sports in the country.

“There are currently 572 000 cricket participants at all levels of participation within this age group in South Africa making it a top five sport among the more than 40 sports codes BMI measures and reports on in their annual Junior Sporttrack report. Cricket remains the second highest participation sport among boys behind soccer, still managing to remain ahead of rugby.”

Standard Bank’s Sponsorship Manager, Jonty Rhodes was on hand to congratulate the boys, and to offer words of wisdom to the young aspiring cricketers. Ironically, Menlo Park beat Rhodes’ Alma Mater, Maritzburg College by two runs in the final.

“I matriculated at Maritzburg College in 1987, but I was more of a hockey player, in fact I was only known for my quick running between the wickets. The reason why Standard Bank are so excited to be involved in this tournament is to ensure that the future of South African cricket is healthy. As a country, we are on the right track and this competion will only help in bringing more cricketers out of the development pipeline.

“Congratulation to Hoërskool Menlo Park, it is truly a wonderful achievement by the players. I hope that they keep up the great team spirit and realise that they can go on to bigger and better things. I hope they can appreciate how fortunate they are to be involved in such a fantastic sport in our wonderful country. The players need to remember that one run makes the difference and hopefully they can realise the role’s that they can still play as they go forward in life, ” said Rhodes.

Each player received an eight gigabyte Apple Ipod Nano as a gift for their efforts, an amazing surprise remarked Menlo Park captain, Richardt Frenz.

“Wow it is such a wonderful surprise, i know that the guys are really excited about the gift. This tournament has been amazing, it was an honour to represent our school but winning it was the ultimate achievement for us. This format of the game has exploded worldwide and this tournament will not only help us groom our skills but it will give schools cricket a great competitive edge,” said Frentz.