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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Nick Dall in Cape Town

‘Cricket gave me everything’: South African sports star brings township children into the game

A group of African girls in cricket whites having a team huddle, seen from a low angle inside the huddle.
The Catch Trust under-19 girls' cricket team has a huddle before their practice match at the trust’s ground at Chris Hani secondary school in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, in South Africa’s Western Cape Photograph: Chris de Beer-Procter/The Guardian

It’s just after 3pm on a Friday and 19-year-old Sinelethu Yaso is in her happy place. Her spotless cricket whites pop against the synthetic green turf, while the upbeat rhythms of kwaito music waft on the breeze as she ambles in to bowl.

Beyond the boundary, in the Makhaza area of Khayelitsha township, in South Africa’s Cape Flats, laundry flutters on a wire fence and the September sun reflects off a corrugated-iron lean-to.

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