Interesting conversation.

Hi guys, I told you a while ago about my mate's son who went to play county cricket in England.

Hi guys, a mate of mine's son is in talks with Southgate Cricket club, they have offered him to come play in the premier league for them.

Carmi Le Roux is 19 years old, finished school last year and has been involved with a number of junior teams under Ray Jennings.

He was unlucky not to make the SA under 19 side, his dad showed me the stats of the U19 results of the tournamnets they plaed in, and he was rated third best statistically, apparnetly they decided to go with an experienced bowler who was in the U19 squad last year as well.

He is a fast bowler, already hitting between 130km/h to 135km/h.

I don't know when it will be finalised but his dad says they just need to iron out accommodation, etc. From what I understand he is not allowed to get paid as it is an amateur league, but they can offer him a coaching job. Obviously his dad has to pay for cost of living whilst he is there for four months.

Is this a strong club, I understand it is premier league, so if he does do well, how does it work from there?

Anyway he is back now, and has some wonderful stories to tell, firstly he did very well for his team, they came last in their league as they were just promoted and found the going tough, he ended as their second best bolwer and 4th best batsman. so all in all a good results for him.

His dad was telling me that Carmi had the opportunity to travel to the grounds where the english tests were played against West Indies, and Sri Lanka and got to bowl to them in their practice sessions, he also had the opportunity to bowl to the english batsmen.

What I found rather revealing was that he was asked whether he had any english ancestory and whether he would be interested. He said no, but apparently there is a way to bring him in as a professional as long as he completes 5 first class games in SA, then he can be brought in as a pro.

I immediately asked his dad whether he wanted to play for england, and he said, no, his son would much rather play for SA, but what I needed to understand was that the opportunities in SA was such that many south african cricketers go over to England for the opportunity to play Pro cricket.

Anyway he was part of the Lions training group for the CL and it sounds as if he might get into their playing squad some time next year.

Lastly, Quinton de Kock was at school with his son at King Edwards.

According to my mate, this guy is something very special, he earned such a reputation as a devastating batsman at school that during their T20 matches, if Quinton got a start King Edward would get BIG runs, if the opposition got him our early the celebrations were such as if they won the match.

He says de Kock is an excellent keeper, and there has been some talk that he is eyed as the next SA Keeper, from what I understand is they want to give him one more season of first class experience.

Nice to hear that he wants to play for his own country.

I knew next to nothing about Southgate Cricket club, so looked them up. I see they pay in the Middlesex league. I think one of the posters on here has played for Stanmore. Nice ground.

One benefit of Tsolekile's test selection is that de Kock might get more keeping opportunities with his first class side. Really looking forward to the evolution of this young tallent.

Lots of talk lately about du Kock.

I'm just not sure if picking a 19 (?) year-old star batsman who isn't quite ready as a pure batsman and giving him the gloves because he can keep is a great idea... if his batting is that great, then let him find his way with the bat first, and at the right time.

The AB question is sure to go round in circles, but really, if AB thinks the keeping doesn't effect his batting, then he's a perfectly good enough 'keeper to do the job. The only reason they'd need another 'keeper is if the 'keeping is effecting AB's batting (I'd have thought it would do, but we can't tell yet) or if it was causing him injuries (maybe it is). And if you then give the gloves to a young batting star then surely you just pass the same issues over to someone else...

Still very confused as to why Vilas isn't being touted as a solution though....

politics shelsey, everything is politics in SA sport.

Not just Vilas, but Kuhn as well.