The ITEC Knights have begun with their preparations for the 2024/25 season when they will be making a welcome return to Division 1 of domestic cricket.

The Knights had to play in Division 2 this past season after being relegated and while they weren’t able to secure a single title, they did enough to get promoted.

The tricky bit for the Knights will be to contract smartly again, while being able to retain their star players. The Knights will be able to contract an additional six players for next season.

It is believed that the Knights will be rewarding their squad that gained them promotion by retaining them for the most part, but it will be bolstered, or players with high performance contracts will get bumped up.

The Knights do also want to invest in younger players as opposed bringing in players for are looking to finish off their careers. They also want to avoid looking at players who opted to go play elsewhere when they got relegated.

The CEO of Free State Cricket, Johan van Heerden, told OFM Sport that it’s exciting times for the union and the Knights.

“We have done what we need to do to get back into Division 1 and we have been promoted back,” said Van Heerden.

“It's sad that we weren't able to win a trophy and it would have been great to maybe have one or two of those trophies in our cabinet.

“We're all geared for Division 1, we're already busy with the contracting for that and we're looking forward to the new cricket season which will be starting in September.”

During the 2023/24 season the Knights reached the respective finals of the One-Day Cup as well as the 4-Day, while they were knocked out in the semi-finals of the T20 Challenge.

In further exciting news, it is confirmed that Bloemfontein will host matches in the 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup which will be played in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport