Cape Town — Amidst the furore of Temba Bavuma’s omission from the six SA20 franchises, the further exclusion of a number of highly-promising South African players went almost unnoticed.
Among this group was new Western Province captain Tony de Zorzi. The 25-year-old is a former SA Uner-19 captain and has long been touted to take the step up to the next level.
However, De Zorzi has yet to fulfil his potential despite a promising four-day series for South Africa A against India A last year, where he struck a century in the second “Test”.
Equally, the stylish left-hander delivered solid but not spectacular performances in last year’s Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge in Gqeberha where he averaged 24.33 at a strike-rate of 125.96 in six matches.
It was not sufficient to get De Zorzi drafted into any of the SA20 franchises, but he believes that a high-performing Province team in this year’s CSA T20 Challenge that starts in Potchefstroom on Monday will be the platform for further honours.
“The goal is team first, putting yourself in a position to win the game for the team first, and obviously if you do that, ultimately you will be in the shop window and put yourself forward for next year’s auction,” De Zorzi said.
“The guys who haven’t been picked will be pushing to get there, and ultimately if you do well as a team you will give yourself a good chance to be picked up.”
WP have a number of players in their squad who will be competing in next year’s inaugural SA20, including Kyle Verreynne, Nandre Burger (both Joburg Super Kings), Beuran Hendricks, George Linde (both MI Cape Town) and Junaid Dawood (Sunrisers Eastern Cape).
Their focus next week, though, will be on helping Salieg Nackerdien’s team improve on last year’s performance where they reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions Boland Rocks.
“We have a really good side. I may be a young gu,y but I will be using all the experience around me. I watched Parney (Wayne Parnell) last year the way he went about it,” De Zorzi said.
“But I will try and lead the team in my way, and hopefully that’s from the front in terms of runs. On the field, I will look to trust my instincts and use the experience of the guys around me.”
WP boast a number of prodigies in their squad with current SA U19 all-rounder Abdallah Bayoumy along with last year’s SA U19 opening batter Ethan Cunningham selected for the trip to North West.
They will, however, miss Jonathan Bird and David Bedingham after both were ruled out through injury.
WESTERN PROVINCE: Abdallah Bayoumy, Aviwe Mgijima, Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson, Daniel Smith, Gavin Kaplan, George Linde, Ethan Cunningham Junaid Dawood, Kyle Simmonds, Kyle Verreynne, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nandre Burger, Tony De Zorzi, Tshepo Moreki
IOL Sport