By: Michael Owen - Smith

The past 12 months have been a bumper year for South African cricket in many respects, not least of all for the contribution that the Standard Bank under-13 week has made and will continue to make.

It is best reflected in the latest group of emerging players to make their mark for the Proteas in all formats of the game. There have been five newcomers in the South African senior set-up last season and four of them – Wayne Parnell, Roelof van der Merwe, Imraan Khan and Vaughn van Jaarsveld – were first identified as talents for the future at under-13 provincial level.

To that list can be added JP Duminy and Albie Morkel who made their Test debuts although they had been members of the South African limited overs squad for some time. Indeed, Duminy’s first season of Test cricket was something that dreams are made of. He started his five-day career with an unbeaten half-century and had the added distinction of hitting the three runs to take South Africa to victory over the then No. 1 side, Australia, with the second highest successful runs chase of all time.

The winning total of 414/4 included centuries from two other old boys of the Standard Bank under-13 week, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers.

But back to Duminy. As if the triumph of Perth wasn’t heady enough, it quickly paled by comparison when Duminy turned the Melbourne Test upside down with a magnificent innings of 161 that turned potential defeat into a stunning nine-wicket victory and, with it, South Africa’s first ever Test series win in Australia in almost 100 years of trying. Duminy’s innings is also the highest individual Test score for South Africa against Australia since unity.

Of the four total newcomers to international cricket to have gone through the Standard Bank under-13 week both Parnell and Van der Merwe have already established themselves as permanent members of both the Standard Bank ODI and Pro20 International squads. There was a further significance to the selection of Van der Merwe as there is indeed to the success of AB de Villiers. A glance at the brochure will reveal that the former played his under-13 cricket for Easterns and the latter for Northerns which is perfectly true. But they did, in fact, have their primary schooling at Witbank and Bela-Bela (Warmbad as it was previously known) and, if they were at school today, would represent the affiliate provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

It is a good indication of how far and wide the cricketing talent net is cast these days to the greater benefit of South African cricket.

De Villiers’ excellent form – he scored three Test centuries in six matches against Australia and also averaged 60 plus in both ODI series against them – saw him named in the International Cricket Council’s World Test XI as the No. 3 batsman for the period from August 2008 to August 2009.

When it came to the CSA awards function, products of the Standard Bank under-13 week virtually swept the board with Smith, De Villiers and Duminy winning all the major awards between them and Van der Merwe edging out Parnell in a close contest for the Emerging International Player.

Another Standard Bank under-13 Week product to make a debut of sorts was Johan Botha who achieved the honour of captain his country at international level after Smith was ruled out of most of the ODI programme through injury. Botha took over the leadership of the ODI side in Australia at short notice and was highly praised for his contribution to the 4-1 series win.

The Proteas are, of course, only the tip of the Cricket South Africa iceberg. Every representative side plays its part from South African Schools to the Emerging Squad which again reached the final of its tournament in Australia against opposition from India, New Zealand and Australia, and the South African A side.

Nine of the 12 players to make the SA Schools were products of the Standard Bank under-13 week as were nine of the 14-man squad that represented South Africa under-19 with success against their England counterparts. One can expect a similar contribution when South Africa participate in next year’s ICC under-19 World Cup in New Zealand and attempt to go one better than the class of 2008 who finished runners up to India.

Several of the under-19 Standard Bank graduates have already made their mark at franchise level such as the captain, Jonathan Vandiar, Rilee Rossouw and Mangaliso Moshele.

This is the first time the Standard Bank under-13 week has been hosted by Western Province since 1997 and South African cricket will be fortunate indeed if the crop of top players produced on that occasion is repeated again. AB de Villiers, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Roelof van der Merwe all graduated from that week and the same would have applied to Imraan Khan and JP Duminy had they not finished their primary schooling as under-12s. Both played at the 1996 week.

Western Province has, of course, been the breeding ground for many of South Africa’s top batsmen in recent years. Those to have come through the Standard Bank under-13 week since unity to the top level are HD Ackerman, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten, Andrew Puttick and Thami Tsolekile – an impressive list by any standards.

In addition, Jonathan Trott has gone on to represent England, scoring a Test century on debut against Australia.

The famous Sahara Park Newlands also features on the list of most international cricketers’ favourite grounds and to play cricket in the shadow of Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak is an experience for the under-13 cricketers of today to take home with them.