Daleview Cricket Club has made a heartfelt plea for assistance to help get the club, which is battling with rundown facilities, back to its former glory.
On Wednesday, The Herald visited the club’s home base, the Daleview Sports Grounds, in High Street, Despatch.
It was clear it was in urgent need of upgrades to its pitch, practice nets and clubhouse, as well as municipal amenities such as water and electricity.
Club member Andre Johannes said it was heartbreaking to see it falling by the wayside, due to lack of assistance.
Among the issues identified by Johannes are the pitch, which is just a large green strip of grass.
The outfield is a shadow of what it once was and the practice nets are unusable – a solid concrete slab without adequate felt to mimic pitch conditions.
Johannes said the club’s cricketing equipment, including bats without grips, wicketkeeper pads and fading kits, was not fit for use.
Despite a boundary wall around the field, criminals still managed to break in, stealing much-needed sporting equipment, electrical wiring and copper tap fittings.
“I joined this club as a 16year-old around the same time it was established in the early 90s,” Johannes said.
“This is not the most affluent area and many people are jobless.
“There are youngsters who hang around on street corners who get involved with the wrong crowds.
“Cricket and rugby, the only two codes to be played here, are ways of keeping them off the streets and out of trouble.”
Johannes said the club had spent more than a decade playing home games in Rosedale, Uitenhage, something he said had an impact on both players and their families.
He said he had approached both Eastern Province Cricket and the municipality on many occasions without success, and now fears that the club is in the process of losing its identity.
He said he had also approached a number of businesses in the area, but “they were not interested in helping”.
Johannes said the club’s members did some fundraising before matches to try to cover costs, but this was not always enough.
“It feels almost as if no-one cares about the club.
“I am willing to fix the pitch myself, but I cannot do that without help,” he said.
EP Cricket president Donovan May said in an e-mailed response that the facility was a municipal-owned and was therefore maintained by the municipality.
“With the lack of funding for maintenance, we are forced to schedule our cricket games elsewhere,” May said.
“We do assist the clubs with a transport allowance to get to the grounds around the metro.”
May also said the club had failed to arrive for eight games during the past two seasons.
“They also need to fulfil all their fixtures if they want to grow as a club, bearing in mind they only have one team in our second league,” he said.
“We also assist clubs with balls, equipment and other upliftment programmes that benefit cricket in the areas, such as special tournaments.
“However, we cannot give equipment to the same clubs on an annual basis, as they have the responsibility to take care of it, or buy their own.”
May said Daleview was one of a number of clubs which found themselves in a similar position.
“Many of the clubs have found other means of raising funds and finding sponsors for their clubs,” he said.
“The allocation that Cricket South Africa gives us is ringfenced for cricket services and not to give monies to run clubs.”
May said he had personally visited the Daleview facility and many others in the metro.
He said most of these “facilities were in need of a major revamps, but communities must also play their part in ensuring that vandalism does not take place”.
“We have made R1m available for facility-related queries.
“We have appointed a facilities co-ordinator where clubs can send their request to the district associations they report to.
“Monies will be spent by EP cricket and will not be given to clubs as we pay the suppliers.”
A query was sent to the municipality on Thursday morning, but no response was forthcoming at the time of going to press.