A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

Before moving to the UK in 2008, I had the privilege of owning and running a Cricket Academy in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa. Cricket has always been a passion of mine, but I also fell in love with teaching children the wonderful game and seeing the joy it brought so many of them.

Nothing beats seeing a smile on a child's face knowing that the couple of hours fun you're providing might just be the highlight of his day! Going into townships gathering kids around who doesn't have shoes on their feet, live in poverty, not knowing where their parents are or even if they're still alive, is often a bitter pill to swallow - trouble is it's reality and the hardest thing is you can't help everyone. When you see them run around having fun, admiring you as a coach, like they don't have a worry in the world, is what made me get up in the morning looking forward to another coaching session.

Unfortunately after 7 years of running the academy, I took up an opportunity to move to the UK, sacrificing family and taking hours of fun away from hundreds of innocent children. At the time I felt I did the right thing. Today I feel I was very selfish. We can't change the past unfortunately but we can shape the future!

For years it's been a dream of mine to continue giving something back to the people of South Africa. One of those dreams is to help some of those who can't afford to pay their own way to accomplishing a dream of visiting and playing cricket abroad, like what was given to me when I was 18, accomplishing a life long dream of playing cricket in England, which luckily for me then became a career. I would not have been able to do this had it not been for the generous help of so many people. I'll never forget them!

Please help make others' dreams also become reality by giving a donation to this cause, every little bit will help and I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Many thanks :-)