Captain Bjorn Fortuin says the Central Gauteng Lions are looking to hit the ground running in this season’s One-Day Cup when their campaign gets underway this weekend. KHUNULOGO MPOLOKENG reports.

The Lions will visit the defending champions Western Province in Cape Town in their season opener on Saturday, having had a good start to the 2024-25 domestic season by successfully defending their T20 Challenge title.

“Over the past few years we’ve done quite well as a group, competing and winning some competitions as well,” said Fortuin at the launch of this season’s One-Day Cup in Johannesburg on Thursday.

“It’s a fresh start, we’re not looking too far ahead. The first game is on Saturday, and the most important part of our competition is getting a good start and hopefully we can progress from there.”

Having also won the 4-Day Series last season – where they beat Province convincingly in the final at the Wanderers – the One-Day Cup is the only domestic competition the Lions didn’t manage to win last term, having finished fourth on the log behind Province, losing finalists North West Dragons and the EP Warriors.

“I wouldn’t say there was a big difference in the way that we played last season,” said Fortuin. “The format played a role with the one-day competition being just seven games. In the other two competitions, where there was a bit more time, we started slowly and fought our way back. The one-day competition doesn’t offer that amount of time to have a bad start and then come back later on in the season.

“So the most important game for us is Saturday’s, getting off to a good start so that we don’t have to fight our way back into the competition at the business end.”

Having recently helped the Paarl Royals reach the playoffs in the third edition of the SA20, Fortuin has conceded that the number of supporters who show up at stadiums for the domestic competitions could improve.

The Lions will play their first home game of the One-Day Cup season on Sunday, 23 February against the Dragons, after away fixtures against Province and the Titans (Wednesday, 19 February).

“[The average supporter attendance] does change the feel of the stadium; it does change the atmosphere in the game and [influences] what you might feel. But from a cricketing sense and from a mind set point of view, it doesn’t change a lot. The goal would be to win the game whether there are 100,000 or 500 people in the stadium; the goal doesn’t change.

“Although having guys exposed to the large crowds does help them deal with certain things and to think under pressure, as well as to grow their game when there are a lot of eyes on them. We wish that there was a bit more support for domestic cricket.

“I don’t think that the standard is too far behind the SA20 in terms of cricket, so I don’t see a reason why the support shouldn’t be as good as it is [in that tournament].

“But that’s out of our control, we have to focus on what happens on the park.”

Photo: Lubabalo Lesolle/Gallo Images