Maphaka 'main dog' for Proteas in Zim

THE excitement around Kwena Maphaka is comprehensible.

- ZAAHIER ADAMS

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 on the field, 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 off it.

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.

For all Maphaka’s promise, Lord’s was no child's playground, with the grizzled Australians, the opposition, and the cameras of the world highlighting every play.