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Sports Reporter

AN Australia-based sports equipment company — Gabba Sporting Goods — has donated thousands of dollars of brand-new cricket gear to Grassroots Cricket, a cricket charity which uses sport to assist youngsters in Zimbabwe.

The donation includes bats, balls, pads, gloves and even two artificial grass pitches which will be sent to Hatcliffe, a disadvantaged community north of Harare, to boost cricket programmes.

The donation was recently presented to Grassroots Cricket directors, Tawanda Karasa and Charles Ncube, by Gabba Sporting Goods owner Mark Gaskell in Brisbane, Australia.

“Everybody loves cricket,” says Grassroots Cricket secretary Ncube. “I think the kids are going to be really stoked.”

For some it will be the first time they hold a brand-new cricket bat or ball in their hand.

Gabba Sporting Goods owner, Gaskell, can’t wait to see the eyes of young cricketers light up when they “hold a shiny new six-stitcher in their hands” and get to try out the other cricket kit.

Gaskell is the current captain of the Australian over 60s team.

He has toured Zimbabwe before and understands the importance of this donation at a time when the country is going through tough times and all, especially children are suffering.

This equipment will bring joy to the dusty oval of Hatcliffe — a place where Grassroots Cricket uses the game of cricket to bring hope and change among the underprivileged children.

Hatcliffe is in a poverty-stricken part of Harare where poor sanitation and the lack of basic services make life a struggle.

Grassroots Cricket founder, Karasa, knows Hatcliffe well as he grew up in a shanty dwelling there.

“Many of the kids who benefit from Grassroots Cricket are orphans or school drop-outs,” Karasa told The Herald from his base in Brisbane.

“Cricket gives them a focus and has a positive impact on their health and self-confidence. Our position is to help bring Zimbabwe to the limelight by complimenting Zimbabwe Cricket’s mass participation programme . . .

What I am doing I’m just doing it as a citizen of Zimbabwe and as an individual. I actually need the authorities to make it easy for us to be able to get the equipment to Zimbabwe and help our people without mudslinging each other.”

Two years ago, the Australian cricket team visited a dusty sports field in Hatcliffe where Justin Langer, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey and other members of the team spent time with the Grassroots Cricket kids doing bowling moves, playing British Bulldog and having fun.

The equipment that was donated by Gabba Sporting Goods will be shipped to Harare where it is sure to make a difference and continue the excitement about cricket.

“We want to get the kids off the streets, where they get tempted into bad things.

This generous donation of cricket kit from Mark and Gabba will help our programmes for change in Zimbabwe,” says Grassroots Cricket’s secretary Ncube.

Grassroots Cricket is a non-profit making organisation using the power of cricket to transform the lives of disadvantaged youths in Zimbabwe.

The organisation’s founder Karasa said their programme aims to reach out to 5 000 youngsters, both boys and girls, aged between five and 19 years by 2023.

Grassroots Cricket’s main objectives are:

To use cricket as a means to positively engage young people in promoting good health and education.

To use the introduction of cricket as a platform to advocate for the provision of social amenities such as schools, and public sanitation facilities in targeted disadvantaged communities.

To promote global partnerships for the advancement and benefit of the targeted disadvantaged communities.

To use cricket as a platform to educate and raise awareness among young people on the dangers of substance abuse, early sexual encounters, early marriages and other related social challenges.

The Grassroots Cricket team is based in Australia, Zimbabwe and the UK.