Ken Borland

Hilton Moreeng has completed his second term as national women’s coach with his reputation intact but whether he continues in charge of the Proteas or not will depend on how new Director of Cricket Graeme Smith sees the long-term future of the team. And captain Dane van Niekerk said on Thursday that she has full faith in Smith’s judgement, even if she may not entirely agree with his viewpoint that the women’s game requires specialist input.

Moreeng, who first became South Africa coach in December 2012, has led the team to the semi-finals of both of the most recent T20 and 50-over World Cups, in both cases losing narrowly to the eventual champions, Australia and England respectively. They have also already automatically qualified for the next 50-over World Cup, in New Zealand early next year, after the points from their postponed series with Australia were shared.

Smith said last week that the post of national women’s coach has been advertised and that he saw it as being “different to the men’s game so we need to improve the pipeline to the national side, as we grow, getting more players who have played for that national team”. The 42-year-old Moreeng is believed to have re-applied for the post.

Van Niekerk said, however, in a teleconference on Thursday that she did not believe in treating the men’s and women’s games differently.

“Graeme came to Australia to meet with me and Mignon du Preez during the ICC World T20, to see where the team was at and where we wanted to go. He’s certainly passionate about the game and we are excited to work with him. It’s more CSA’s job to decide on the coach and we will respect their decision, either to keep Hilton or to make a change. Our relationship with CSA is good enough that we can talk about anything.

“But I believe cricket is cricket, the principles stay the same, although in the women’s team you have to deal with different personalities and hormones, of course, while the men tend to be more cool, calm and collected. But I’m a big believer that looking at the men’s and women’s games differently is not the way to go forward, I would like to change that stigma because we train just as hard as the men,” Van Niekerk said.

The Covid-19 pandemic not only caused the series with Australia to be called off but it is playing havoc with South Africa’s planning leading into the World Cup starting on February 6. A tour of the West Indies scheduled for the end of May is almost certainly not going to go ahead, while the tour to England in August/September is also under threat.

“Hopefully we get back on the park sooner rather than later and the next World Cup is very important for us and our sole focus at the moment. We have unbelievable talent and I wouldn’t be captain if I didn’t believe we could win a World Cup, we’ve been very close twice and we just need to stay patient.

“But Covid-19 has affected the momentum we created at the last World Cup, which was so successful for women’s cricket in general, it would have been nice to continue that hype, especially since it was going to be us against the world champions a couple of weeks later. But we have the World Cup next year to create that hype again and I think there are a lot of special things still waiting for this team,” Van Niekerk said.

Newly-appointed South African women’s cricket captain Dane’ van Niekerk will miss her team’s first engagement since her appointment as she and three other leading players will not be making the trip to Ireland for a four-match ODI and two-match T20 series in Dublin from 1-11 August.

All-rounder Van Niekerk, fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and batters Marizanne Kapp and Lizelle Lee are the current stars of the South African team and have, deservedly, won contracts to play the England Super League T20 competition.

This is a great opportunity for the country’s top women’s players, who are way behind the men and their own counterparts from places like England, Australia and New Zealand when it comes to being able to make a decent living out of cricket, and, given that the Irish invited the Proteas after they had already been given No Objection Certificates and signed contracts with the Super League, Cricket South Africa have wisely decided to allow them to honour their commitments in England.

The absence of the four stars will also, however, boost CSA’s efforts aimed at producing more depth in the women’s national team.

“We see this as a good opportunity to give our young, up-and-coming players some vital international experience,” coach Hilton Moreeng said. “This will help us with the depth of the side and it will be a good test to see what they have to offer, especially after campaigning for a place in the side for so long. All of them have represented South Africa before and will value the opportunity to play more cricket against a good Ireland side on foreign soil.”

The South Africans will have a well-travelled replacement captain in Dinesha Devnarain, who leads the KZN side and is also a leading coach, one of only eight women in the country with a Level III certificate.

There is still plenty of top-class talent in the side with former captain Mignon du Preez, Trisha Chetty, Ayabonga Khaka, Marcia Letsoalo, Chloe Tryon, Moseline Daniels and Sune Luus all included in the touring party.

Medium-pacer Letsoalo said there is a hunger in the side to ensure they do not make the same mistakes as last season.

“We can improve, we know what we’re capable of. We let ourselves down last season, we know the mistakes we made and we’re working hard not to repeat them. It boils down to preparation and fitness, and being able to execute. You have to be wise and able to perform in the game.

“Having a strong batting department is the key thing we have been working on at the centre of excellence academy, batting long hours, rectifying the mistakes and weaknesses. The bowlers must just keep doing what we’re doing,” Letsoalo said.

Team: Dinesha Devnarain (KZN), Trisha Chetty (Gauteng), Mignon du Preez (Northerns), Lara Goodall (Boland), Ayabonga Khaka (Border), Yolani Fourie (Gauteng), Marcia Letsoalo (Northerns), Andrie Steyn (Western Province), Laura Wolvaardt (Western Province), Masabata Klaas (Northerns), Chloe Tryon (KZN), Moseline Daniels (Boland), Suné Luus (Northerns), Odine Kirsten (Northerns).

Fixtures: 1 August – 1^st T20I (YMCA); 3 August – 2^nd T20I (YMCA); 5 August – 1^st ODI (Merrion); 7 August – 2^nd ODI (YMCA); 9 August – 3^rd ODI (Malahide); 11 August – 4^th ODI (The Hills).

Shane Warne may have been the greatest leg-spinner to ever grace the game, but not even he could also score double-centuries as is the case with South African women’s sensation Dane van Niekerk.

The 19-year-old Van Niekerk will be one of South Africa’s key players in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka next month and her confidence must be sky-high after her phenomenal performances in the domestic women’s league last season.

Van Niekerk was a leading light as Northerns defended their title, finishing second in the batting averages with 494 runs at an average of 123.50, including two centuries and a half-century and her brilliant highest score of 203 not out. She scored her runs at a strike-rate of 92.55.

But it is as a bowler that Van Niekerk shows tremendous promise. Her leg-breaks saw her also finish second on the bowling averages with 17 wickets at the laughable average of just 4.29, plus she conceded just 73 runs in the 41-and-a-half overs she bowled!

The national women’s team are fulsome in their praise of their coach, former Dolphins mentor Yashin Ebrahim, and he, as a former spinner himself, has been able to guide young Van Niekerk.

“Yashin has taught me about different tactics, about when to bowl over the wicket or around the wicket, and when to use the googly,” Van Niekerk told supersport.com on Wednesday.

“But I was fortunate at a young age to work with Johan Rudolph – Jacques’ father – and he has a real passion for leg-spin, as well as Harry Shapiro [who modelled his Cricket Coaching Institute on the Australian Academy] and now Henry Williams.”

The South African Women’s team had a morale-boosting series win over the England Academy side in their last competitive outing in April and Van Niekerk believes they are a closing in on the top four of undisputed leaders England, Australia, New Zealand and India.

“We tested ourselves last year against the full English team and came up short, but we’ve made huge strides in the last year. There’s still a gap between us and the top four, but twenty20 cricket is always a huge gamble, you never know what will happen and it depends on who wants it most on the day,” Van Niekerk said.

With the ICC World T20 being held alongside the men’s competition in the sub-continental conditions of Sri Lanka, Van Niekerk’s leg-spinners should be more than useful, but, having had previous experience of those kind of pitches, the Centurion resident knows she can’t just rock up and expect success.

“I’ve been to Bangladesh on a previous tour and, although it’s nice to bowl in the sub-continent, you still have to work hard and sum up the conditions. You need to work out what pace to bowl, whether you need to bowl quick or slow,” Van Niekerk said. “But I’m fortunate in that the team also has another leg-spinner in Sunette Luus and I’m ecstatic that we’ll be able to work as a pair. Leg-spin is always a weapon in any form of cricket.”

South Africa have been placed in the same group as hosts Sri Lanka, New Zealand and the West Indies, with the top two teams going through to the semi-finals.

“New Zealand will hopefully not be that familiar with the conditions, so one of our goals is to beat them. They’ve been in the top four for a long time, but their recent results against England were not much different to ours. We have not played them since the last World Cup in 2010, but our scores against England were pretty level,” captain Mignon du Preez said.

“Our first game against Sri Lanka is a big one too, if we can win our first game, then we’ll be on the front foot. They’ll obviously know their home conditions better than us, but matches have always been close between us. We then play New Zealand, and end with the West Indies, who’s strength is more in the twenty20 game.”

It is clear that the South African women’s team are not overawed anymore on the international stage.

“Our goal is to make the semi-finals, even though we have not made the playoffs before,” Du Preez said. “For the first time, we are really well-prepared, we’ve had a strict fitness programme and our own academy.

“Yashin has given us the mindset to perform at international level and we now have different options and styles when we’re bowling, and several batting options too. We’re much more like the men’s side now. There’s not that much awareness about women’s cricket and there’s a misperception, people think you have to be butch to play cricket. But cricket is for any girls – and pretty ones too!” the petite Du Preez smiled.

Those with a longer memory of women’s cricket will be hoping the current crop of young stars does not go the same way as Johmari Logtenberg, the batting phenomenon who gave up cricket in 2007 to take up golf.

Van Niekerk, who is so dedicated to cricket that she is completing her matric through home-schooling, is confident she will not be forced down a similar path.

“I think it’s possible for me to become a professional cricketer, although there’s still a long way to go. We need sponsors, but Cricket South Africa are doing a lot for us. It will take time and performances, but for any sportsperson, the goal must be to do what you love for a living,” Van Niekerk said.

http://www.supersport.com/cricket/women/news/120808/Warne_has_nothing_on_Van_Niekerk