SWD 2021 squad

SOUTHERN CAPE CRICKET NEWS - SWD Cricket has revealed the final squad for the 2021/22 season.

SWD, KwaZulu-Natal (Inland), Border, Easterns, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga will all feature in the second tier of domestic cricket.

Under the new structure, the six-team franchise system that had been in existence for 17 years, has been dissolved and replaced by a 15-team first-class format.

The set-up sees the teams split eight-seven into the two divisions, which will remain the same for the first two years before an automatic promotion and relegation system commences.

The teams and their positioning in the new domestic cricket structure were finalised early last month when an Independent Evaluation Committee (IEC) revealed the look of the new South African cricket landscape, following a bidding process that was open to all the unions.

The Division 2 squads have some of the most promising young players in the country mixed with veterans of semi-pro rank. It will now boil down to who can settle quickest as a unit and hit the ground running when the new season starts later in the year. That will be a challenge for all the teams.

Onke Nyaku (from the Cobras), Yaseen Valli (from the Titans), André Malan (from Western Province), Leus du Plooy (an overseas professional from Derbyshire, who played for the Knights) and former SWD export, Marcello Piedt (from Eastern Province), Blayde Capell (from KwaZulu-Natal) and Sean Whitehead (from Free State) will be the newly contracted players SWD will be relying on in the new structure.

They will join a group of local players who have stamped their authority at first-class level.

The SWD squad is:

Blayde Capell, Yaseen Valli, Jhedli van Briesies, André Malan, Leus du Plooy, Jean du Plessis, Onke Njuaku, Sean Whitehead, Renaldo Meyer, Sintu Majiza, Hanno Kotze, Marcello Piedt, Travis Ackermann, Heath Richards, Herschell America and Pheko Moletsane.

Hanno Kotze