After more than 200 universities fought it out to be the best university in their country,  the top universities from South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, England and Australia will compete in this competition to become best in the World. These Universities will be:

South Africa: Assupol TuksCricket, Pretoria

Australia: University of Technology, Sydney

Pakistan: Government Jinnah College, Karachi

England: Loughborough MCC University

Sri Lanka: International College of Business and Technology, Colombo

Bangladesh: European University of Bangladesh, Dhaka

UAE: Heriot Watt University, Dubai

India: TBC

The group stages of the tournament will be taking place from 19 – 22 October and the Semi-Finals and Finals will be taking place on Saturday 24 October. The fixtures will only be determined the day before the tournament starts when Red Bull will host a uniquely Indian draw ceremony.

Before the tournament gets underway team South Africa will first be stopping at the ICC Academy in Dubai for a warm up camp in preparation for the tour. Here the team will train on specific surfaces that replicate the conditions of the Indian pitches as well as play in a warm up match.

The team has prepared as best as they could for the tournament and this included many warm-up matches, 2 of them against the Cape Cobras, and two days of consulting from former Protea, Shaun Pollock.

Head Coach for team South Africa, Pierre de Bruyn, said, “We are very humble as a group knowing that we are the defending champions. We have trained harder and where more specific in our areas of focus, as that is what this competition requires. We will face challenging and unfamiliar conditions but we have worked very hard on mental toughness to counter that.”

The final squad was announced and only 6 players who went to the tournament last year are part of the squad again. The squad for the tournament is:

Aiden Markram (Captain)

Murray Coetzee (Vice-Captain)

Lungi Ngidi

David Mogotlane

Tyler Easton

Matome Modiba

Ruben Claassen

Corbin Bosch

Dustin Melton

Evan Jones

Blake Schraader

Gerry Pike

Vincent Moore

Pierre de Bruyn (Head Coach)

Chris van Noordwyk (Assistant Coach)

Blanche Conradie (Manager)

Captain of the Assupol TuksCricket, Aiden Markram, said, “We are very excited and keen to get going for the tournament. Our preparation is going well and the team environment is happy and very excited.”

At the media send-off function, UP Executive Director, Antonie de Klerk, congratulated the team on qualifying again to represent South Africa. He wished the team well on behalf of the University and mentioned that the team has the talent, experience and commitment to win the tournament again. Prof de Klerk mentioned that he is looking forward to supporting the team and encouraged the players to have fun, make the most out of the tournament and to make memories for life.

The team will be leaving for Dubai on Wednesday 14^th October where they will be until the 17^th of October when they will make their way to India for the tournament.