South Western Districts Cricket, on Friday evening, at the Annual Awards Function of the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport that was held at the Cape Sun Hotel, won the award as sport federation of the year for the Western Cape.
SWD Cricket received the award ahead of Western Province Rugby, Boland Wrestling, Overberg Kickboxing, Central Karoo Netball and West Coast Cycling – other finalists In the category of Federation of the Year.
SWD Cricket qualified for this award after being appointed as the Sport Federation of the Year at the Eden Sport Awards that was held in November 2015.
SWD Cricket’s most significant achievement for the period under review was when the federation was rewarded for its operational structures and programmes during the 2014/15 season as we ended third overall in South Africa. The purpose of the Incentive model is to drive improvement in several areas and to provide members with an opportunity to be recognized and rewarded for performance. The primary purpose of the scorecard is to measure performance in order to reward members who exceeded basic delivery requirements of the CSA funding objectives. It is, however, important to note that, over and above measuring and rewarding excellence; one of the main aims of the scorecard is to establish the level of delivery of each member in the specific programmes/activities related to the Operational model.
Other highlights were the inclusion of Jean Heunis in the SA Colts team, Lyndon Volkwyn in the SA Tertiary Team, Luthando Mnyanda (Powerade SA Academy intake), Michaela Andrews (SA Girls u/19) and Hanno Kotze (SA u/23 Colts). It is evident that the high performance program in the province is on track and the further achievement of Michaela Andrews when she received the award at the Annual CSA Awards Function as Player of the Tournament for the CSA Girls U/19 tournament is proof that this province can produce quality players.
SWD Cricket successfully presented the CSA Academies Week in September 2014 and CSA U/15 National Week in December 2014 and also hosted the CSA Academies Franchise Academies week in September 2015.
In a year of tough financial challenges the total of the federation income increase by 39.76 %. The National Lotteries Board made a contribution towards a grant of R2,4 million.
In his response, Mr Rudy Claassen, thanked cricket fraternity of the SWD for their hard work and dedication to ensure this achievement. “This accolade is a reward in our striving towards excellence on all levels of cricket and we are indeed proud on our achievements”, he said.
