1 February 2024
CS Chiwanza contributed to the writing of this story.
With the introduction of shorter forms of the game, like T20 and 100-ball matches, opportunities exist for cricket teams to play more games and to boost their records. However, those short forms of the game also increase the likelihood of losses. One player can turn the tide. That’s why this team’s record of 21 consecutive victories, with only one rained out match to break up that streak of success, is truly remarkable.
Which school, you may ask, achieved this incredible feat? St Stithians College? No. Grey High School? No. Grey College? No. Rondebosch Boys’ High. No. King Edward VII? No. Affies? No. DHS? No.
The answer to the question is St Charles College. Playing in the hotbed of KZN, and participating in numerous events around South Africa, Saints’ 2019 squad, led by Zimbabwean international, Wessley Madhevere, put together a once-in-a-lifetime season, and while some might be surprised to learn about it, that amazing season didn’t just happen.
It was the product of good planning, absolute commitment, and an innovative approach from a group of talented cricketers who put in the hard yards, which won them a number of games from a losing position. And when that run was finally ended, they had written their names into the annals of the Pietermaritzburg school, which was founded in 1875. In fact, a fountain was constructed, overlooking the St Charles Oval, to commemorate the side’s incredible achievements.
Murray Cole-Edwardes, the coach of that special team, explained how St Charles rocked South African schoolboy cricket with an intense, innovative, and always-at-’em approach.
When he arrived at the school, players were promoted to cricket teams in the same manner that they went up the academic ladder: the youngest players played for the youngest age groups and the matric students played in the open age groups, including for the 1st XI.
In 2017, the entire St Charles’ 1st XI was made up matric learners. It was a good side, good enough to score a last-ball win over Maritzburg College to win the T20 Night League. But there would be no experience to follow in 2018.
“I remember thinking, ‘Shucks, what happens next year? Now, does the second team become the first team or does under-16A become the first team?’ I didn’t like that. So, development was massively important for me,” Cole-Edwardes recalled.
He chose not to change the status quo regarding team selection. Instead, he decided to build for the future while continuing to guide the side he had inherited.
Then, when 2018 rolled around, the St Charles 1st XI included four grade 10 boys. It was a big change from the school’s previous approach.
Cole-Edwardes looked at under-14 and under-15 players and identified the age groups’ most talented cricketers. Then he pulled those players together into a squad. “That was the start of a culture of growing and developing players before they came into it the first team,” Cole-Edwardes said. It proved to be a masterstroke. But that was not immediately evident.
After the 2017 season, a new and diverse team had emerged, and it contained only three matric learners. Cole-Edwardes had broken with tradition.
“I told them, ‘You are the best cricket players in the school. You didn’t make the first team just because you are in matric’,” said Cole-Edwardes. It was a statement he had to repeat over and over again throughout 2018 because his young team suffered many losses. Yet, all the while they were improving, both individually and as a unit.
Measured on results, 2018 was not a good year. But Cole-Edwardes stayed true to the process he had instituted.
“The culture shift was made, you put the team first,” he explained. “So, if I told [captain] Wessley Madhevere, he wasn’t going to open that day, it would be ‘no problem, sir’.”
Discipline was paramount and the observance of cricket etiquette was non-negotiable, Cole-Edwardes said.
The St. Charles badge has the inscription, “Fideli certa merces“, a Latin proverb. Translated, it means there is always a reward for the faithful. Cole-Edwardes’ team remained faithful to their preparation. They worked hard.
“We trained four or five days a week. We had gym on a Monday, net sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, and an open middle session on Thursday. We’d have a captain’s practice on a Friday now and then, which consisted of us doing a fielding session for an hour,” standout all-rounder Jason Login said, reciting a familiar routine.
It also wasn’t a case of the younger players filling the batting spots at the tail end of the Saints’ line-up. Boys were slotted into positions where they would end up playing for years. One of the younger players, Nathan Lindsay, for example, opened the batting.
Cole-Edwardes also emphasised fielding. Every player could contribute on that front and his goal was unequivocal: St Charles would be the best fielding team in the country.
Also, when it came to batting, he focussed on running between the wickets. Saints might not hit the most boundaries, but they could run more singles than anyone else.
He explained the concept: “We’re gaining through brilliant fielding, through brilliant running between the wickets, through partnerships, rather than massive sixes.”
It was about the team’s ability to exert pressure and to handle pressure.
It’s all good and well to have good concepts, but those have to be practically implemented and that takes buy-in from the players. It’s about having the talent to do those things, but, more importantly, it’s about having the desire and drive to always push to attain those goals and then raise the bar.
Fortunately for Cole-Edwardes, he had a special group of players who had bucketloads of character and a team ethic that would in 2019 deliver them a number of wins from precarious positions. Those results were, often, the consequence of tough practices which, Cole-Edwardes admitted, sometimes weren’t appreciated by the boys.
He spoke about long sessions, which he would conclude by setting the players challenges when they were tired and physically drained.
Those practices might have seemed a little over the top, but those rehearsals won them an unforgettable contest against Paarl Gimnasium in a do-or-die game at the Coca-Cola Schools National T20 Finals in 2019, with Saints in action as the champions of the Dolphins region.
It was a thrilling contest and as it drew towards its conclusion, so spectators and players from other schools began to flood towards the boundary of the field at the University of Pretoria. There was nothing in it.
Saints posted 135 all out. It wasn’t an imposing total, but fielding and bowling was the Pietermaritzburg school’s forte. They managed to defend their total, just, but that didn’t mean the contest was done. It simply meant that the tension had ratcheted up. Gim were restricted to 135 for 5 after a brilliant last over from paceman Keagan Crawford went for only five runs.
That sent the teams into a super over and the boys from the Western Cape did a fine job, posting 17 for 1. Wessley Madhevere and his brave side were on the back foot. They responded in inspiring fashion, however, and, incredibly, when their over was complete, they had also tallied 17 for 1.
What next? How would the contest be decided? It turns out such an eventuality had been considered in the rules for the event. The team that had scored more boundaries would win.
Physically, Paarl Gim had a bigger side, but Saints had scored more boundaries. They added the points for the win, and they were on their way to the final of the competition. Those long, tiring, big-hitting sessions had paid dividends.
Madhevere and his team went on to finish as runners-up, equalling the best ever result for a KZN school in the National Finals, and Madhevere was named the Player of the Tournament, while his Zimbabwean and Saints’ team-mate, Clive Madande, was named the Best Bowler.
Jason Login recalled those practices: “We did a number of different types of sessions, focussing on rotating the strike, sweeping and reverse sweeping, and facing the short ball, all to develop our range. On some days, for an hour, non-stop, we practised hitting sixes,” he said.
Cole-Edwards mentioned a practice when he challenged Login. The coach set up a bowling machine on the pitch in the middle of the field. Then he had junior boys strung out along the boundary. The challenge for Login was to hit successive sixes. Once he managed that, he was free to leave.
But it just wasn’t happening for Login. “His hands were sore, and he said ‘Sir, I can’t do this anymore’. I told him that he wasn’t going home until he hit six sixes. When you are in the final over and you need a six to win the game, your head must come back to this moment,” Cole-Edwardes told Login.
Thinking back to that unforgettable win over Paarl Gim and the challenges Saints faced at the National T20 Finals, he said: “When you play these guys from Paarl and Waterkloof, they’re hitting sixes into the road. My boys are just clearing the boundary. And we had more success with it! Jeepers, here we are talking about being the best fielding team of all. And we’ve just had more success [hitting boundaries] than Paarl, which just was ridiculous!”
He also believed in living the methods he preached, and he would join his team in training. It helped to keep the players going, especially when he pushed them hard. There were times when he pushed them to the limit. Building strength in the gym was followed by running. When the players were close to spent, Cole-Edwardes positioned them close to the boundary and challenged them to prevent fours and sixes.
“I told them, ‘If you can stop three here, if you can stop two, that will be the difference.’ They would be stuffed. I would tell them, ‘You are playing four games in two days, and you will need to take a catch to win the game’,” said Cole-Edwardes.
While some of the specifics of fielding and batting were accorded special attention, there were other intangible qualities that helped carry the team to success. Leadership, for example, was not a one-man thing.
“In this 2019 team, Wes [Madhevere] was obviously a leader on the field,” Cole-Edwardes said. However, he revealed, in the change room there were three leaders: Madhevere, Clive Madande, and Jason Login. Madhevere was a Zimbabwean international, Madande would become one, and Login played for KZN Inland. He was also that player that could be counted on when the chips were down.
Mudhevere’s example in the field was outstanding, Cole-Edwardes said. “We trained like you’ve never seen at schoolboy level. You will never see a better fielder than Wessley in schoolboy cricket, ever.
“We trained so hard on our fielding, but, in terms of leadership, it was more like a core group of guys, rather than your captain.” As a trio, each player contributed a piece of the puzzle that led to effective, winning cricket.
Login’s grit and team ethic were most memorably on show in late 2018, when Saints faced Northwood away from home.
He wasn’t well. On the way to the match, he threw up in the bus. But Login didn’t want to let his teammates down. “He didn’t want to stay at home, but he should have,” Cole-Edwardes admitted.
Login argued that he felt better than he looked. His inability to keep anything down said otherwise. Cole-Edwardes pushed him down the batting order to number seven. A part of him hoped that Login wouldn’t be required to bat. However, St. Charles lost early wickets and found themselves on a precarious 55 for five before their innings was halfway through.
“We lost quite a few early wickets, so I had to rush out, having been to the bathroom loads. Walking out to bat, I just thought, we are here now, have fun,” Login said. He hobbled the length of the pitch for ones, but he couldn’t run twos. Still, he did an effective job of hitting fours.
In the end, St Charles cruised to an 89-run victory after posting 187 for 7, but it had looked dicey for a while. Login’s attitude exemplified how everyone in the team felt – they were in the team to serve the team.
Crucially, that win was where Saints’ outstanding run of success began, Cole-Edwardes said.
It was Northwood, again, who were the victims when St Charles delivered the kind of uncompromising victory that is often found in long unbeaten runs. It was a gut-check win in a game that it looked like they would lose.
As usual, Saints were good in the field and Northwood mustered just 108 for 5. But the St Charles batting was less successful. Three players made it into the twenties – Clive Madande (21), James Twycross (25), and Wes Madhevere (26) – but five players failed to better three runs.
However, when the chips were down, Kyle Moodley, with the field compressed to keep him from scoring, found a gap to hit a four and snatch a one-wicket win on Reece-Edwards Field.
Madhevere and company’s high-pressure game translated well against less familiar opposition, too, which they demonstrated exceptionally well at the Independent Schools Cricket Festival, hosted annually by St Alban’s College in Pretoria.
Saints showed just how constricting their fielding and bowling could be in three convincing victories over St Alban’s, St David’s Marist Inanda, and St Andrew’s School.
The best those three, all good cricketing schools, managed in any of the matches was the 116 for 7 put up by the hosts, but that hardly amounts to a significant total. St David’s managed only 75 all out. St Andrew’s were bowled out for 92.
In the first two matches, the leaders – Madhevere and Madande, both off-spinners, and Login, a leg-spinner – shared seven wickets between them. In the latter, Kian Channon was all but unplayable with the new ball as he captured a five-for.
The list of teams that Saints defeated during their magical run 2019 run included Grey College, Hilton College, Michaelhouse, Waterkloof, St Andrew’s College, Paarl Gimnasium, and St Andrew’s School, the national T20 champions the previous year, who later in the season brought Saints’ spectacular run to an end when, finally, an explosive T20 innings proved too much for the Pietermaritzburg school to overcome.
A remarkable fact about the St Charles’ season was the fact that only one of their batsmen scored a century, although it was a special effort from Jason Login, who achieved a rare feat by scoring a ton against Maritzburg College on Goldstone’s in a rained-out match. That fact, though, serves to underline just how much it was a case of everyone contributing, and it also demonstrates just how effective Saints were in the field.
On the bowling front, only Kian Channon, with the aforementioned five-for against St Andrew’s managed that feat. If ever there was a team that was greater than the sum of its parts, it was the St Charles College 1st XI of 2019. Apart from Madhevere and Login, the only other player to earn selection to a higher team was Kyle Moodley, who joined Login in the Inland side.
St Charles’ successes also spoke volumes about the value of teamwork in cricket, something which all too often is not accorded enough importance.
While they had good opening bowlers, with Keagan Crawford and Kian Channon giving them a solid one-two punch, and Cameron Spangenberg backed them up with skilful seam bowling, the strength of the side lay in its varied spin attack and the exceptional support the bowlers received from the fielders.
Leading the way in the field was the skipper, whom coach Cole-Edwardes rated as the best fielder in South Africa. Madhevere was an excellent off-spinner, as was his fellow countryman, Clive Madande, while Jason Login provided the varied attack with a leg-spin option.
Both Madhevere and Madande set the tone with the bat, often taking the offensive to put pressure on the opposition’s bowlers. Login was the man for a tough battle, but along the way there were important contributions from all of the team’s players.
Up front, Nathan Lunderstedt was a fine foil to Madande’s attacking approach. Humphrey van der Merwe, meanwhile, was a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, who would regularly find the boundary. Kyle Moodley usually batted at seven, but often went in at three if an early wicket fell. James Twycross, the regular number three, was a useful back-up bowler and also the team clown.
Put together, the players, each with their own special qualities, were able to supply the little nuances that different situations required. They were able to dovetail, producing complementary cricket, with each small detail adding another piece to the winning puzzle.
There was no leaning on one special talent. The St Charles 1st XI of 2019 was a team in the best sense of the word, and teamwork was their special talent.
RESULTS
St Charles 187 for 8 (K. Channon 59, J. Login 50); Northwood 98/10 (W. Madhevere 3/14, C. Madande 3/28, C. Spangenberg 2/10) SCC won by 89 runs.
Framesby 150 all out (J. Login 5/43); St Charles 197/10 (J. Twycross 31, C. Madande 30); Framesby 53/1; SCC won on the first innings by 47 runs.
Pearson 90/10 (W. Madhevere 5/25); St Charles 90/10 (W. Madhevere 34); Pearson 58/5; St Charles 59/2 (C. Madande) SCC won by 8 wickets.
St Charles 200/10 (H. van der Merwe 89, K. Moodley 30); Muir 59/10 (J. Twycross 4/0) SCC won by 141 runs.
St Charles 131/6 (J. Login 44, C. Madande 37); Grey College 124/9 (C. Spangenberg 3/27, J. Login 3/16, including hat-trick) SCC won by 7 runs.
DHS 146/10 (C. Spangenberg 3/28); St Charles 150/4 (W. Madhevere 53*) SCC won by 6 wickets.
Ladysmith High 28/5; St Charles 29/3; SCC won by 7 wickets.
Hilton College 67/9 (K. Channon 3/10, C. Madande 2/12, K. Crawford 2/14); St Charles 68/7; SCC won by 3 wickets.
St Charles 164/4 (C. Madande 71, N. Lunderstedt 31); Michaelhouse 104/10 (C. Madande 4/14, W. Madhevere 3/7, K. Crawford 2/7) SCC won by 60 runs.
St Charles 252/10 (W. Madhevere 52, H. van der Merwe 42); Clifton College 181/10 (J. Login 3/28, S. Mdingi 3/35) SCC won by 71 runs.
St Charles 156/6; Westville Boys’ High 118/10 (W. Madhevere 2/17, J. Login 2/19) SCC won by 38 runs.
St Alban’s 116/7 (J. Login 3/19, C. Madande 2/17, W. Madhevere 2/26); St Charles 118/5 (C. Madande 54) SCC won by 5 wickets.
St Charles 136/8 (C. Madande 43); St David’s Marist Inanda 75/10 (J. Login 3 for 8, W. Madhevere 2 for 10, C. Madande 2 for 12) SCC won by 61 runs.
Northwood 108/5 (C. Madande 2 for 19, W. Madhevere 2 for 28); St Charles 109/9 (W. Madhevere 26, J. Twycross 25) SCC won by one wicket.
St Charles 158/10 (W. Mahhevere 51*); Kearsney 61/4 after 10 overs; rained out.
St Charles 161/10 (C. Madande 38, W. Madhevere 36); St Andrew’s School 92/10 (K. Channon 5/17) SCC won by 69 runs.
T20 National Finals
St Charles 170/5 (J. Login 53, J. Twycross 38); St Andrew’s College 153/8 (C. Madande 3/33) SCC won by 17 runs.
St Charles 141/6 (J. Twycross 61, J. Login 34); Waterkloof 126/10 (W. Madhevere 3/32, C. Spangenberg 2/18, C. Madonde 2/24) SCC won by 15 runs.
St Charles 205/3 (W. Madhevere 65, C. Madande 48); Queens High 115/9 (K. Crawford 3 for 13, C. Spangenberg 3 for 30) SCC won by 90 runs.
St Charles 135/10; Paarl Gimnasium 135/5; Super over: Paarl Gim 17/1; St Charles 17/1; St Charles won on most boundaries.
St Andrew’s School 153/7; St Charles 129/6; St Andrew’s won by 24 runs.
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