This year, Varsity Sports marks ten (10) years of university sports tournaments combining three sporting codes held in the City of Tshwane. The University of Johannesburg (UJ) cricket, hockey and rugby teams will be participating in the Varsity Sports tournaments which will take place from 3 to 7 October 2022 at the University of Pretoria (UP-Tuks) Stadium.

The 2022 Enza Premier League champions (UJ Cricket) are in Pool A with Stellenbosch University (SU Maties), University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Central University of Technology (CUT).

Mr. Siyabonga Sibiya, Head Coach and Manager: UJ Cricket Club, is optimistic that the team will perform well in the tournament though the team has a number of injured players such as Khaya Fakude and Ronan Hermann who are not included in the squad. South Africa Under-19 player, Liam Alder, will be at the Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 Division 2 Competition in Pietermaritzburg.

The team boasts players that have played provincial cricket and were part of the team that won the 2022 Enza.

“The guys are in good spirits and they had a nice team building session on Monday. Over the weekend, we played our last T20 matches which went well. I think the group is very excited for the opportunity to go and showcase their skills,” explained Sibiya.

Sibiya’s team is a relatively young team with the average age of 18 to 19 years, the majority of which will be playing Varsity Cricket for the first time except for Lucky Nhlanhla Mofokeng. Like most of the players, Sibiya also has not coached in the Varsity Cricket tournament, but his experience in world cup cricket will help the team excel in the tournament.

Sibiya, who joined UJ in September 2021, says he is grateful for the support he gets from the University colleagues and management. “We are stubborn enough as a group to want to stand out against whoever is in front of us. We would have not identified these players if we thought they are not good enough for us now and the future. We are very happy and excited for the challenge, we believe we can win it. We want to represent the University well,” said Sibiya.

2022 UJ Cricket Team:

Yosuf Ravat, Cameron Dean Shekleton, Sahil Bramdhaw, Emmanuel Motswiri, Lucky Nhlanhla Mofokeng, Shaveer Khan, Edwin de Waal, Daniel van der Merwe, Simo Potelwa, Kieron Croome, Khaya Fakude, Zakwan Patel, Declan Osborn.