Preparations for the inaugural Varsity Cricket tournament in Potchefstroom hasn’t been ideal for UFS Kovsies as the Bloemfontein-students had a late start to their preparations.

Students returned home for the festive holidays and have been slow in returning to the institution which has applied extra weight onto the shoulders of coach Jonathan Beukes on the registration process to be concluded.

“It’s been difficult to get the students back from the festive holidays and we have had to start late with preparing for the event as most of our students are away from Bloemfontein. Preparations haven’t been ideal but we have started and are on the go again and we are looking forward to the tournament.

“We are still waiting on the new students and some returning students to register so that we can make a call on availability. We are under a lot of pressure to have the players registered by the cut-off date and the process is stressful,” he told varsitysportssa.com.

Beukes couldn’t contain his excitement about cricket being added to the list of sports in the Varsity Sports stable and believes it’s something that’s needed to bridge the gap between first-class and club cricket in South Africa.

“Adding cricket to the list of Varsity Sports is a very good idea and something that is long overdue. Cricket in South Africa has been needing something to bridge the gap between club cricket and first-class cricket.

“If you look around the country, most of the amateur players are students who are good cricketers who need more exposure. Having this extra exposure which will help them develop faster,” he added.

The Kovsies coach is also excited about the new innovations which will be used at the Varsity Cricket tournament and thinks that it could help boost the game at club level as no team would then be completely out of the contest.

“The innovations are exciting and good for University and introductory-level cricket as it will make the format more interesting and exciting than it already is. I think it’s very good as players at that level are still learning and developing their skills.

“Any way to keep the game exciting and keep people involved, is always a good thing. what I like about the idea is that you are never out of the game and you can still win the game if 50 runs is needed in the final two overs, which keeps the game exciting until the last ball.

“Looking at all the 20-over competitions around the world, many games are lost if wickets fall early in your batting innings. It’s hard to make any sort of comeback from that position. Whereas with this, you can still lose those early wickets but still have a chance to win the game at the end,” he stated.

With minimal preparation time and no warm-up matches, Kovsies will have a tough task ahead of them at the Varsity Cricket tournament but Beukes said the USSA Cricket Week, as a whole, was a good foundation for the upcoming competition.

“The USSA tournament was a good lead-up to Varsity Cricket as it gave us a chance to have a look at the other participating teams to see what they are all about and I know we will be able to compete against them.

“We won’t paid much attention to the other sides. We will just take every match as it comes and hopefully the results will be positive,” he said.