Sports sponsorship provides entertainment, training

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The Johannesburg team was selected in a 'scrum-off', held at Coca Cola Park stadium just before the Lions vs. Cheetahs game on Friday 6 May 2011. The winning team, which included one female Springbok supporter, displayed its strength as it beat four other teams by scrumming a heavy duty bakkie filled with 46 cases of Castle Lager over a 40m distance in the fastest time.

The KFC Mini Cricket programme, which fits into Cricket South Africa's Tomorrow Campaign to shape the future of cricket, celebrated its first year of sponsorship, as the school cricket season finished. The past year included 16 annual regional festivals and several new initiatives introduced by the company to grow and broaden the scope of the Mini Cricket brand.

These initiatives included the launch of the KFC Mini Cricket Ambassador programme, with cricketers Makhaya Ntini, AB de Villiers and Trisha Chetty, Family Days during the Castle test series against India, a monthly administrator award and encouraging and supporting the participation of girl's teams.

The first 'administrator of the month' recipient was Johan Muller from Pretoria, followed in March 2011 by Sarah Swartz from Kimberly, who has recently retired after 20 years of active involvement with the programme and counts Loots Bosman and Victor Mpitsang among her many cricket success stories.

"The focus for year one was to monitor the programme and establish the areas that we need to focus on. Over the past year, 3500 schools were targeted around the country, which translates into 86 000 children who were exposed to the game of cricket. This gives us a base from which to move forward and grow the number of schools and children involved in the programme while still ensuring we have the resources and infrastructure to guarantee the programme remains a sustainable entity going forward," commented Lauren Turnbull, KFC sponsorship manager.