Western Province Cricket Association has today confirmed the coaching setup and squads within the Cricket Services Department of the organisation.

In the coaching department, WPCA welcome back former Western Province, Cape Cobras and South Africa bowler Roger Telemachus, to Cape Town, having been appointed as the head coach of Western Province Provincial Academy.

During his playing career, Telemachus earned 37 ODI caps for the Proteas and 3 T20I caps in an international career spanning 1998-2006 and with 78 first-class matches, 176 List A matches and 38 T20s under his belt, Telemachus will bring a vast amount of experience back to Cape Town as he aims to produce the next generation of Western Province stars.

“I’m quite excited and blessed to be a part of WP Cricket again, I think it’s a long time coming, I’ve been away from Cape Town for around 7-8 years so I’m excited to be back and excited to work with the younger group here. I’m looking to produce skilful and brave cricketers for the professional team. History tells me that WP youth cricketers have dominated the last couple of seasons, if we look at Coke Week, they are always in a semi-final or final and also dominating at CUBS week, they produced first-class and Proteas cricketers. I’m looking forward to working with the other coaches, Salieg Nackerdien, Faiek Davids in the senior team and all the other great coaching staff, let’s hope that we can produce those unbelievable cricketers we have produced in the past and hopefully I can make a difference with my coaching knowledge,” said Telemachus.

In the WP Women’s coaching setup, Claire Terblanche continues in her role as the head coach of the Six Gun Grill WP Senior Women’s team and the Girls’ Cricket pipeline, whilst Shiree Steyn has been appointed as the U16 Girls head coach, having previously worked within the Helderberg Hub. Gabi-Lee van der Westhuizen has been appointed as the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Six Gun Grill WP Women’s team.

“We are looking forward to the upcoming season to build on what we produced in the BSE competition last season with our youngsters stepping up and producing some good results. Hopefully we improve this season in all aspects of our game to continue growing our Women’s team successfully,” said Terblanche.

In other appointments within the WP youth department, Kholekile Matikinca has been promoted from his role with the WP U16 Boys to become the WP U19 Boys head coach and Lusindiso Malilwana has moved up from the WP U13 Boys to coach of WP U16 Boys.

WP Cricket Services Manager Clinton du Preez: “We welcome Roger and Shiree to our coaching structure and we wish them all the success with their respective squads as we aim to continue our tradition of producing top Men and Women talent for our provincial and national teams. We also welcome the internal promotions which speaks to our retention of quality coaches in our pipeline.”

Western Province Cricket Services Coaching Structure:

WP Senior Women and Girls’ Cricket Pipeline Coach: Claire Terblanche

WP U16 Girls Coach: Shiree Steyn

WP Academy Coach: Roger Telemachus

WP U19 Boys Coach: Kholekile Matikinca

WP U16 Boys Coach: Lusindiso Malilwana

Photo supplied