TSE had the privilege to chat to Ben Stephens who is the Executive Director of The Root Academy. Ben spoke on what the academy is aiming to accomplish from a coaching point of view as well as the international set up the academy is involved in and the high-performance academy.  The Root Academy aims to “unlock your cricketing potential” and is unique to bringing the best out of the players by allowing the cricketers to play to their strengths.  The Root Academy was founded by Matt Root with Ben Stephens as the Executive Director. 

Matt and Ben have similar principals hence it is a winning combination when it comes to coaching and running the academy.   

For more information on the academy, visit: www.therootacademy.co.uk.

Thando Ntini is making in-roads in the cricket world and  his progress  is simply astounding. After being in the South Africa U19  team he has gone on to represent Paarl Rocks as well as the Cape Cobras. 

Thando speaks about growing up, cricket as a career and how to deal with  pressure.

Brian McMillan is easily regarded as one of the best all-rounders to  ever play for South Africa. He won the Cricketer of the Year award twice  and is well-known for his ability to turn a game on its head with his  batting and bowling ability.     

Brian played 38 Test matches and 78 One Day Internationals for South  Africa from 1991 to 1998.

Dan Nicholl gave some insight into the life of being a sports presenter, MC and writer.  Dan talks on how his career began and touches on some of the events that he has hosted and how amazing sport is.  

SJ Erwee, a current Dolphins cricketer, has experienced almost  everything that cricket can throw at you. SJ, who has represented the  South Africa “A” team, has a certain attribute to him that is rare and  justifies the importance of setting goals and putting that extra effort  in when necessary.   

The Africa T20 Cup, Momentum One-Day Cup, Hong Kong 6’s with South  Africa, Momentum 50 over Player of the Season are just some of the  awards this talented cricketer has won.

Kyle Coetzer has a fascinating story to tell. He has represented  Scotland in cricket at all levels from U15 to the senior men's team and still has ambitions for his team and country.   

Some of his career highlights include being honoured with an MBE,  beating England and his team will be at the T20WorldCup next year in Australia. Kyle's batting average for ODI's is a fantastic 43.80.  He first captained the Scottish ODI squad for Zimbabwe tour in June  2017. In the first match as ODI captain on 15 June 2017, Kyle scored a  century becoming the first Scottish player to do so in a debut  captaincy.

Andy Halliday is the Great Britain men's hockey manager. He has done  great work for hockey and has been involved in charities namely,  Hockey4Heroes. Andy has a vast amount of experience and has added value  to the game as a whole.

Clive Barker, arguably one of South Africa's finest football coaches,  spoke to TSE about football in South Africa. Clive is the only coach to  have won the African Cup of Nations with South Africa. Since then,  football in South Africa has not had quite the same success.

Robin David Jackman was born Simla, Punjab, British India and is a  former English cricketer. His  career saw him play four Tests and  fifteen ODI's for England from 1974 to 1983. He was a seam bowler and  useful tail-end batsman with his best bowling figures being 8/40 in  First-Class cricket which saw him have an average of 22.80. During a  First-Class career lasting from 1966 to 1982, he took 1,402 wickets. 

He was a member of the Surrey side that won the County Championship in 1971  and also played for Western Province in South Africa in 1971-72, and  for Rhodesia between 1972–73 and 1979-80.

Alan Dawson’s international career lasted from 1998 to 2004, yielding 21  ODI wickets at a bowling average of 34.04 and five Test wickets at  23.39.  Dawson's best 'international' performance occurred in the semi-final of  the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. South Africa had lost  nine wickets when Dawson joined Nicky Boje at the crease. They put on a  partnership to steer South Africa into the final where they beat  Australia.