The Wellington Wolves

THE Wellington Wolves looks to have put together a potent squad together ahead of the inaugural Boland T10 (BT10) which gets under way on Sunday 1 September.

The BT10 will ignite the new club cricket season and the fact that this will be the introduction for most of the players to the shortest and newest format of the game, ensures that coaches and captains will need to have their thinking caps on the whole time.

Goldrush Boland professionals, Grant Roelofsen, Michael Copeland and Siya Mahima are the Wolves’ marquee players and the trio possess undoubted match-winning capabilities. Roelofsen and Copeland will spearhead the batting and will be assisted by young GysbertWege who is one of the Wolves’ pre-selected players. Pacer Kieran Dreyden and the left arm spin of Mahima will hold the key to their ability to restrict batting teams.

Wolves team manager, Warren Groeneveld, a key member of the Wolves leadership team, affirms the quality of their squad. He says: ‘’We’re excited and focussed as we prepare for this new tournament. This is a short and fast paced format but we’ve managed to assemble a good squad and we believe we can go very far in this tournament.’’

When asked about his personnel, Groeneveld answered enthusiastically: ‘’Look, our marquees players are top performers but we’re equally excited to see how the youngsters in the squad go. These players might not be as well known but guys like Chad Ayford, Wesley Engelbrecht and 17-year-old seamer Marco Junior Cato can use this platform to their advantage.’’

Groeneveld added they thought long and hard about their strategy during the process of pre-selection and especially during the draft evening. ‘’We went in with the strategy of getting versatile players who we think can play this format. We went for allrounders and guys who can bowl at the death and we have explosive batters too. We want to compete fiercely and aim for the title,’’ he confidently concluded.

The Wolves kick off their campaign with a mouthwatering encounter against the West Coast Blues on Monday 2 September.

WELLINGTON WOLVES: Grant Roelofsen, Gysbert Wege, Michael Copeland, Siyabonga Mahima, Riduwaan Louw, Chad Ayford, Junaid Cassiem, Marshall Dampies, Kieran Dreyden, Tiaan Cloete, Marco Junior Cato, Elzario Dreyer, Gio Hulley, Jade Adams, Shaun Wolmarans, Rowan Robertson, Wesley Engelbrecht

Coach: Cedric Williams

Assistant coach: Craig Abrahams