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MAPHAKA 'MAIN DOG' FOR PROTEAS IN ZIM
The Mercury
|June 27, 2025
THE excitement around Kwena Maphaka is comprehensible. He sends down left-arm down thunderbolts that have touched the 150km/h mark.
He is strong, mature, smart and ambitious, and hails from the same St Stithians College stock as Kagiso Rabada.
The fact that he's only 19 years old ensures he appeals to an entire generation unburdened by the country's fractious past.
In essence, Maphaka is the future of the Proteas cricket team, and with a home World Cup on the horizon in two years' time, he is the picture-perfect image Cricket SA are trying to promote. This is an almighty load to bear for anyone - let alone someone only recently eligible to obtain a driver's licence - with even the great Rabada admitting to having suffered from bouts of anxiety during the early years of his international career.
It is for this reason that Maphaka can only be grateful that he has Shukri Conrad steering his Proteas future.
Conrad intentionally left the teenager out of his World Test Championship Final squad.
This story is from the June 27, 2025 edition of The Mercury.
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