Retired Rondebosch Boys Primary School Teacher,
Lenore Ciolli is one of the longest lasting KFC Mini-Cricket coaches in the
country having initiated her KFC Mini-Cricket journey in 1983, the same year
that Cricket South Africa started the programme.
In 1983, the then school sports administrator, Mr Pieter
Minnar, walked into the staff room and informed the teachers that the school
was starting a new cricket programme and he wanted volunteers. Lenore did not
know much about cricket but the programme sounded like something exciting so
she joined the programme as the schools U9 coach.
Pieter was introduced to the programme by none other
than the late Bob Woolmer.
Initially there were only four schools in her area
that took part in KFC Mini-Cricket, Rondebosch Primary School, Bishops, SACS
and Wynberg, now there are 14 schools with 384 kids that take part.
She has been able to meet some amazing people I her
journey. In 1995 she got to meet Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh,
when they visited the country and went to a KFC Mini-Cricket festival in Langa.
When Gary Kirsten was still a player he used to
attend some of the KFC Mini-Cricket Provincial festivals at Newlands. It was
always a highlight for the kids and coaches to meet him and get some coaching
tips.
When Australia visited South Africa in 1994, Jonty
Rhodes and Shane Warne were walking past a festival at Newlands where they saw
the kids and stopped to watch the cricket. Needless to say, the kids were so
excited to meet their heroes.
Lenore has help the Western Province Cricket union in
everything from ticketing to being a team manager. She even serves as the
chairperson of the union for a while but she has never strayed from KFC
Mini-Cricket. She just loves the sport, loves the kids and enjoys watching
children having fun. Her reward is a big smile.
About KFC Mini-Cricket
KFC Mini-Cricket provides a
platform for kids in South Africa to have fun and get active.
KFC Mini-Cricket is the largest
grassroots development sports programme in South Africa and is also an
essential building block for learning cricketing basics and entrenching a love
for the game.
There are currently over 114 000 kids from over 5500 schools active in
the KFC Mini-Cricket programme who are coached by nearly 9000 volunteers.
KFC has
sponsored KFC Mini-Cricket since 2010 and in the 2012/13 cricket season KFC
became the title sponsor of the KFC T20 Internationals and an associate sponsor
of the CSA T20 Challenge.
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