BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – A Barbados cricket team will tour South Africa towards the end of next year on the invitation of PowerPlay Sports Academy, a sports school which works with Zimbabwean cricket development stalwart Steve Mangongo.
Barbadian-born Winston Weekes, an England-raised agent with close ties to Zimbabwe since the 1980s, will in October 2023 lead a delegation of 15 players and five officials to South Africa.
“The squad will be made up of the Barbados young cricketers who come to play in England for the summer, all professionals,” Weekes, who is well-respected within the Zimbabwean cricket circles, told SportsCast.
The invitation from PowerPlay Sports was written by Mangongo, the former Zimbabwe national team coach, who chairs the Organising Committee of the Randburg-based academy.
He penned: “PowerPlay Sports Cricket Academy would like to extend this invitation to Barbados Select to tour Johannesburg, South Africa, for a full Cricket Series. PowerPlay Sports shall organise an itinerary with 4 T20 matches and five 50-over matches.”
Meanwhile, London-based Weekes has been offered the post of director of cricket by PowerPlay Sports, on a five year-deal.
Weekes, who is passionate about cricket development, travelled regularly to play and coach club cricket in Zimbabwe in the 1980s as the southern African nation was applying and preparing for the eventual admission into Test cricket in 1992.
From those days, he formed a close bond with Mangongo, an ex-Zimbabwean club and first-class cricketer who later on as a coach famously churned out some of the country’s best black players, who include Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s first black captain.
