Wits men's cricket team enjoy triumphant campaign but still seek more success in 2024
- By S’fiso Nyawo
The Wits men's Cricket team have enjoyed great success throughout the season, clinching the CGL Premier T20 League, the CGL Premier Time League.
The Wits men's Cricket 1st XI outfit have enjoyed great success throughout the season, clinching the CGL Premier T20 League, The CGL Premier Time League, and topping it off with the CGL Premier Overall League title.
It’s taken a lot of hard work behind the scenes for the team to defy the odds and make it a successful campaign. The team was led out by Adrien Fisher, who is a second year Bachelor of Commerce student, specializing in Finance. Fisher made a change to his degree to focus on finance, which now sees him looking to complete his qualification in 2025. Fisher made his debut for the Wits 1st team in 2022 as a 1st year student, where he also captained the side on a temporary basis, before seeing the captaincy permanently handed over to him this year.
Since then, he has not looked back and has guided his troops to a successful campaign so far in 2024 and shared a little what it took for the team to enjoy such success.
“We as a team and a club have certain standards that we have set ourselves and we expect to achieve and uphold these standards 99% of the time. These standards allow us to hold each other and ourselves accountable for our actions. These standards create a high-performance environment that will lead to success if done right. We also have specific processes that help us compete at a high level. They range from early-morning gym and fitness to late-night team practices. These processes are there for us to improve our skills to ultimately lead to winning results. This year so far, the team and our coaching staff have all bought into these standards and processes, which have helped us string performances together.”
The success has meant a lot to the skipper, who furthermore acknowledged the great work put in by the coaches and the team. “It has just been amazing for me to work with such great players and coaches. The success this year that has come with the job, has ultimately been a bonus. We have worked really hard to get where we are today and therefore it feels extremely rewarding to add some trophies to our cabinet. I am just so privileged to be able to be part of this generation of Wits cricket and I hope to contribute wherever I can one day and leave it in a better place. I am extremely proud of the team and our success this year so far has given me more confidence in this group to achieve even greater things.”
The Wits cricket team have worked incredibly hard to get to where they are today, but captain Adrien Fisher puts that all to just being able to control the controllable. “For us, it is about controlling what we can control and leaving the rest to mother cricket. I would therefore say that a big driving force for the team has been our work ethic, standards, and discipline. We feel that if we can control those parts of our games there will be a higher chance of success and the rest such as winning games and trophies will take care of themselves.” The team have had to endure a bit of a rebuild this year, with the club welcoming new young players and a new coach, which Fisher applauds in seeing a difference from seasons gone by.
“This year we have gone through a bit of a rebuilding phase as we have a young team as well as a new head coach. This has allowed us to create a new identity in our environment and play the brand of cricket that we want to play. This has made this season just a little bit more special as we have been able to lay our own foundation of the type of team that we want to be, while still winning games and trophies. Any season playing for Wits is special, but to be able to do well while still growing as a team and finding our feet makes this season so far that little bit more special.”
The Wits 1st team will certainly not be resting on their laurels, as they are still hungry for more success this year according to their skipper. “We still have our two biggest tournaments coming up for the year. We have the Varsity Cup T20 tournament and the USSA tournament still ahead of us which will allow us to compete with the best universities in the country. We would love to bring home two more trophies and make history by being the first Wits team to win both of those. We know it is going to be a tough job as the universities in our country are extremely talented and well-trained. We are going to stick to our processes and keep getting better to give ourselves the best opportunity to lift both of those trophies.”
With such a great season having taken place, Fisher believes his highlight of the season was winning the CGL Premier T20 trophy at the Wanderers Stadium, proving the team is moving in the right direction. “The highlight of the season so far is definitely the CGL Premier T20 League final which we ended up winning at the Wanderers stadium. It was the cherry on top of an already great season. To have been able to put a complete performance together in a final where pressure is always high, proved that we are following the right processes. It also allowed us to finish on a high and will hopefully help us carry the momentum into our next two tournaments. Winning that specific final felt like a true reward for the hard work building up throughout the season.”
The interview concluded with Fisher giving flowers to Lutho Sipamla, Connor Esterhuizen, and Moe Manack, who are some of the individual stars in the team. He showered praise on the careers and successes his teammates are enjoying and showing great pride in them also being Witsies.