The Proteas squad for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India will be announced in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.

The big announcement will be made at Grey College, which is one of the schools that has produced the most Proteas, which include Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronjé, Pite van Biljon, Corrie van Zyl (former player and head coach) and Ryan McLaren, but to name a few.

The former Proteas allrounder, McLaren, who is now the Commercial Manager at the school, said it’s a huge honour to host the squad announcement.

“It's a great honour for Grey College to host the Proteas again, it hasn't happened for quite a while now,” said McLaren, who was head boy at the school.

“Normally these World Cup squad announcements happen at places like the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town or at the SuperSport studios in Randburg. It obviously coincided with the ODI series that the Proteas will be playing against Australia, with that happening next week in Bloemfontein.

“The timing of it could not be better and from the school’s point of view, we're really excited about hosting the event. Grey College has a very successful cricket program and has produced many professional cricketers for the Knights, Eagles, Free State and Proteas in the past as well.”

McLaren who enjoyed a very successful cricketing career domestically and abroad added that hopefully exposing the youngster both at the school and in the region inspire them to greater heights.

“On the other front it's also great for our boys and schoolboy cricketers in the region to come face-to-face with some of their heroes.

“The journey started for me as a kid running next to the fields and getting a signature from players such as Hansie Cronjé and Allan Donald.

“Hopefully it's the start of a dream for a few of these boys, but for us as school we're really excited to host the Proteas again. So, we can't wait.”

Other Proteas to come out of Grey College are Victor Mpitsang (now Proteas Convenor of Selectors), Nicky Bojé, Boeta Dippenaar, Rilee Rossouw and Morné van Wyk.

The current Proteas fast bowler, Gerald Coetzee, also attended Grey before moving to St Andrew’s School to complete his schooling. The ICC Hall of Famer, Allan Donald, is another player that started out at Grey but he too completed his schooling elsewhere. Donald matriculated at HTS Louis Botha.

Meanwhile, the Proteas will face Australia at the Mangaung Oval on Thursday in the first One-Day International. The second ODI will be played on Saturday the 9th.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport