When bowler Ntandoyenkosi Soni received the call that he had been selected for the SA U19 cricket squad, he was in Paarl with the Warriors.
He missed the 9am call from the convenor of selectors, Patrick Moroney, because he was part of the warm-up for the game against Boland.
He had to return the call at around 3pm, when there was an innings break. It was nerve-wracking, he says, as he did not know what it was all about.
He first apologised for missing the initial call and then received the news that he was going to be part of the SA U19 entourage that was going to Namibia and Zimbabwe in January.
“I called him immediately after I saw his WhatsApp message,” Soni said.
“He then broke the news that I was selected for the World Cup.”
Being a not-so-good secret-keeper, he had to concentrate on keeping his lips sealed.
“He told me not to share the news. I informed my mother, and then I had to stay quiet about it with my teammates, which was hard because I’m a transparent person,” he said.
Soni, who is the only representative from the Eastern Cape, will form part of the leadership group in the World Cup.
His team-mates call him the “the elder” already.
It will be his third year in the national youth side since bursting onto the scene in 2024.
Though he was not part of the 2024 World Cup team, he felt the after-effects on the side after they were knocked out by India on home soil.
That group included Kwena Maphaka and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who now are part of the senior team set up.
The SA U19 are drawn with Tanzania, West Indies and Afghanistan in their group.
“We don’t know much about Tanzania, but we have seen what the West Indies and Afghans have done in the past,” Soni said.
“They have good U19 systems which produce many of their national senior teams.
“The Windies usually have good batters, and Afghanistan has those mystery spinners they have year in and year out in World Cups.”
As a build-up for the World Cup, the SA U19 have had a series against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in Harare.
This was for them to acclimatise to the conditions they will encounter in January.
That experience and having players who are part of the SA20 and who have played for their respective senior domestic teams, including himself, will come in handy going deep in the knockout stages.
Soni made his first-class debut for the Warriors at just 19 in September.
The Warriors are a team he is fond of and one that he grew up watching.
Born in KwaZulu-Natal, Soni’s family moved to Gqeberha when he was a child because his father, who was an engineer, found a job there.
He went to Grey Junior as his first school, but after his father died when he was in grade 2, his mother, he and his sister moved back to KwaZulu-Natal in 2013.
There he went to Penzance Primary in Durban. That is where he says he was moulded into the cricketer he is today. He finished at Glenwood, where he matriculated in 2024.
“When the opportunity arose for me to come and play for the Warriors, it was a no-brainer. I was straight out of high school and still trying to figure out things,” he said. — Daily Dispatch
When allrounder Ntandoyenkosi Soni received the call that he had been selected for the SA U19 squad, he was in Paarl with the Warriors.
