Jason Sathiaseelan is a veteran of cricket development and organisation in KZN and a pioneer of promoting cricket within Chatsworth and surrounding areas. He dedicated much of his life towards promoting the development of the game and was appointed as Amateur Cricket Manager at the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union in 2017. Sathiaseelan shared his journey with Tabloid Newspapers.
Tabloid Newspapers (TN): You have been involved in cricket for 29-years. How did your love affair with the sport start and what was your upbringing like?
Jason Sathiaseelan (JS): I was born in Chatsworth and finished my schooling career in Chatsworth. Football was my number one sport and I played club football. I started developing a passion for cricket by playing street cricket – we used to make a bat out of a plank and the tomato crate was our wicket. We used to play against other roads. At the age of 22 I decided to open my own cricket club and we affiliated to the Natal Cricket Union with one team. I purchased one bag of cricket equipment and we shared it among the team. Now, 29-years later I am still the president of the club and we have grown to 15 teams. At one stage we had 22 teams.
TN: How did your journey with Chatsworth Sporting begin and how would you describe it?
JS: When I started my club in 1989, it was called Manchester Sporting (being a Manchester United supporter). In 2002, I called a meeting of all Chatsworth clubs and proposed that we as a community should look at having just one club in Chatsworth. In this way we could galvanise the playing and administrative strength of Chatsworth and be a force to be reckoned with. While Chatsworth United were against the idea, Topham and Shallcross said that they need one more year. So only Apollo and Manchester Sporting were keen and we decided to go ahead and merge and called the club Chatsworth Sporting Club. The reason for the name is it represented Chatsworth and we could include other codes of sport later on. The following year, Topham and Shallcross joined and we ended up having 22 teams in junior and senior cricket. We had representation from all clubs and I was elected as the chairman from 2002. I still believe this is best way to galvanise playing and administrative strength in Chatsworth.
TN: What do your roles within Chatsworth Sporting and the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union entail?
JS: I quit playing in 2001 to focus on coaching and my role at Chatsworth Sporting is president of the club and head coach. I served on the executive committee of Durban and Districts Cricket Union from 1994 to current date. I served on KZNCU council and executive for more than 20 years. I served on all cricket committees including coaching and development, finco, manco, constitution committee, fixtures, disciplinary committee and marketing.
I am now employed by KZNCU as the Cricket Services manager in Inland and am thoroughly enjoying serving the game I so dearly love and enjoy.
TN: What drives your passion towards the development of cricket within KZN and Chatsworth?
JS: Wanting to produce cricketers from the Chatsworth and surrounding community to KZN Schools teams and ultimately the Dolphins. We did not have facilities that the privileged had and this saddened me so I worked very hard with coaching players and obtaining bursaries for them at cricket playing schools so that they could take advantage of these fantastic facilities that don’t exist in our community. I used to take a Chatsworth team and play matches against the cricket schools like Northwood, Westville, Glenwood and DHS. Our lads used to do well against them and this opened doors for players from Chatsworth being offered bursaries at these schools. On average, I am proud to say that I had arranged bursaries for more than a hundred kids from Chatsworth to attend these schools in the last 15 years.
TN: What is the proudest moment of your career so far from a cricketing perspective?
JS: Schools cricket was non-existent in Chatsworth and I needed to get the kids off the street and have them actively involved in sport. So I drafted a letter in 1995 and sent to all primary schools in Chatsworth inviting them to participate in a schools league on Saturday mornings. I told them that we will provide the cricket balls, equipment, umpires and scorers. All they need to do is bring the team. In 1995, I had eight teams that were interested and I started this league. The following year I had 16 teams and by the third year, I had 44 school teams playing organised, competitive cricket on Saturday mornings throughout Chatsworth. This was our mass development programme and it was such a pleasure to see so many kids being actively involved. Obviously, this was a massive sacrifice for me because I used my own money to buy cricket balls and equipment. I sold my car and bought a VW Caravelle and every Saturday morning I would pack the micro bus with the 14 kits, then I would go pick up my club members who volunteered to umpire and I would drop off umpires and kits at each venue. After the matches, I would go pick up the umpires and collect the kits. Although exhaustive and expensive, the joy I got from the seeing so many kids playing cricket was my proudest moment. I ran this programme for 14 years and we produced more than 50 KZN school caps from this programme. Trisha Chetty who plays for the Proteas Women played for Oceanview Primary, Jonathan Vandiar who plays for the Titans and Dolphins played for Moorton Heights Primary and Cody Chetty who plays for the Dolphins, played for Belvedere Primary.
TN: Do you have any playing experience?
JS: I played first team cricket for 12 years and then started coaching to introduce more players to the game. I have done my coaching courses and I’m a CSA Level III coach.
TN: Do you have family who are also involved in the game?
JS: I have been divorced for 10 years and I have two boys who play cricket. They were on cricket scholarships. The eldest, Leonardo Sathiaseelan, is the assistant hub coach at Northdale Hub, and the youngest, Breyton Sathiaseelan, is in matric this year. Both played first team cricket for Kloof High School and both play club cricket for Chatsworth Sporting.
