Ken Borland

So South Africa’s gritty women’s cricket side fell once again at the semi-final stage of the World Cup, bringing an enthralling campaign to an end. So where to next for Hilton Moreeng’s plucky Proteas?

It is vital that the feel-good factor surrounding the women’s Proteas is maintained. While there has been a substantial improvement in the amount of investment into the women’s game in recent years, thanks to the sponsorship of Momentum and the increased focus from Cricket South Africa, there is still a sizeable gap when it comes to the amount of money flowing to the men’s game as compared to our ladies.

It is the same with every sport and Momentum issued figures this week which show that 61.1% of commercial investment in South African sport goes to the men, and only 4% of television coverage goes to women’s sport. This despite 40% of all sports participants being women.

The reason for this disparity is partly because of the lower viewership numbers for women’s sport. So if you want to support the Proteas women, make sure you watch all their televised games and encourage others to do so too. Of course they also need the backing of the television stations to actually broadcast their matches and it would also help if South Africa’s ladies could play more often.

Having unequivocally proved that they are one of the best sides in the world, and with superstars like Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Sune Luus, Shabnim Ismail and Dane van Niekerk (when she returns from injury), there should be teams eager to play against us.

Although South Africa were rather heavily beaten by England in their semi-final, it will please coach Moreeng that his side won several desperately tight encounters at the World Cup. That showed their mental toughness. The main reason they lost by 137 runs to defending champions England was their shoddy catching, with centurion Danni Wyatt dropped five times on her own!

But that sort of fielding sloppiness can be fixed. It is actually a malaise that needs to be rectified across the board in South African cricket.

One also needs to give Moreeng enormous credit for the work he has done in moulding such a powerful team.

He became national women’s coach at the end of 2012, when they had recently finished fourth in the Women’s World Cup Qualifier, behind Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies, all teams they are now beating with regularity.

They only finished sixth in the 2012/13 World Cup, but the growth of players like Ayabonga Khaka, Luus, Lizelle Lee, Lara Goodall and, most especially, the magnificent Wolvaardt, has lifted them clearly into the top three in the world.

With the national team in such a good space, it is now time for CSA and their sponsors to give more attention to the domestic women’s game.

While CSA, thanks to the support of Momentum, now provide the 14 top national players with full-time contracts, wouldn’t it be great to see our leading provincial sides hiring players on a fully professional basis as well.

Of course they will need financial support from sponsors to do that, and sponsors need exposure, which in this day and age generally means television coverage.

Broadcasters want to know there will be thousands of eyeballs glued to whatever they put on the screen.

But there is no doubt the interest in women’s cricket is growing exponentially at the moment. The time is right for major steps in the development of the game.

South Africa’s women have never won a series in the West Indies, but coach Hilton Moreeng is confident the Proteas can knock their hosts off that perch when they tour the Caribbean for three T20s and five ODIs starting on August 31.
Much of Moreeng’s confidence is based on the return of players such as captain Dane’ van Niekerk and Chloe Tryon, plus the wonderful form shown by South Africa’s representatives in The Hundred competition in England that ended last weekend. All-rounder Van Niekerk was named player of the series as she led the Oval Invincibles to the inaugural title, and pacer Marizanne Kapp was named player of the match in the final, her record figures of four for nine destroying the Southern Brave.
“This is the first time we’ve had the entire squad fully fit and raring to go since the last World Cup. We have not won a series before in the West Indies and our last tour there was not very joyful. But this time we are anticipating a very good tour as we welcome back Dane’ and Chloe. We’re very happy where we are sitting now.
“To see how our players contributed in The Hundred, the way Dane’ and Marizanne dominated in the final, shows the quality we have. We’re very happy with their achievements and it means we have players who are in good nick. And along with someone like Shabnim Ismail, they show the other players how to handle that high-pressure environment and execute your skills on the day,” Moreeng said on the morning of their departure on Monday night.
South Africa’s previous away series against the West Indies was in 2018 when they drew both the ODI and T20 series. In the final wash-up it was the slowness of the pitches that caused the Proteas the most problems.
“We know what to expect, we have players who have played a lot in the West Indies. The hardest thing are the very slow pitches, the West Indies play well on those and use their bowlers very well. We’re used to more pace on the ball, but over there you have to deal with the ball keeping low and facing lots of spinners.
“Our expectation though is to win a series in the West Indies, something we haven’t done before. We arranged slow pitches on this side to prepare better and it’s up to us to adapt. Our last tour to India was a good indicator of how well we can bat in those conditions and we must make sure we continue with that,” Moreeng said.

South Africa Women’s coach Hilton Moreeng says he and his technical staff are having to find innovative ways to prepare the team properly as the Proteas ladies eye their return to action on January 20 when their ODI series against Pakistan starts at Kingsmead in Durban.

The three-match ODI series is followed by three T20s, with all of the matches being played at Kingsmead, as the Proteas Women play their first competitive cricket since their nailbiting ICC World T20 semifinal loss to Australia on March 5 last year.

“Being in a bubble is a challenging environment and we have to follow a new normal which is very strange for everyone, training with masks and everything. But it is an opportunity to play cricket and we are just educating the players, this is a new experience for them. Our last three days of training have been very good and our preparations are on track, I’m very happy with how things are proceeding.

“The most important thing is that the team has had a year out of action with no competitive cricket, so just to get out on the park is a big thing. We have had a lot of camps, which went well, but you can only see so much in those. I’m looking forward to a lot of youngsters now getting the opportunity to actually play. And at the end of the day we’re just playing to win,” Moreeng said on Monday.

There are at least two spots available in the batting line-up due to the absence through back injuries of captain Dane van Niekerk and the hard-hitting Chloe Tryon, even if those players coming in are just leasing their spots from two world-class performers who will be missed.

“It’s a big loss but mostly for the individual players because we don’t know when their next opportunity to play will come. But their absence does give an opportunity to others to play and that only makes the team stronger. A couple of youngsters have put their hands up in our camps. Of course competitive cricket will always be another level and rustiness will be there.

“We wanted to take our momentum from the T20 World Cup and keep improving while we build for the next World Cup [the 50-over edition in New Zealand next year], so not playing for a year has been a blow for everyone, but we can only control what we can and that’s the attitude we want the players to have. At the end of the day, safety must come first and we are just thankful for the opportunity to play,” Moreeng said.

The differing domestic circumstances of the Proteas women’s squad meant some of them had done no cricket-related work since the beginning of Lockdown in March when they arrived at their training camp in Pretoria, but coach Hilton Moreeng said on Friday that he is happy with the intensity shown this week.

A high performance squad of 24 was named to gather at the University of Pretoria for a skills-based training camp that ended on Friday. The Proteas were last on a cricket field 143 days previously when they were narrow losers to hosts Australia in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.

“The last time we were together was at the World Cup so we needed to get back into the swing of things. The camp went well, even though the environment is now totally different, there’s a new normal, which we realise and are slowly getting used to. We needed to press the reset button and if our tour to England happens in September then we need to know we’re ready and can hit the ground running.

“We needed to see where the players’ skills are. For some of them it was the first time they have picked up a bat since the World Cup because not all of them had the facilities to train properly. But I was very happy with the intensity I saw, that was good to see for our preparation for a possible tour and the upcoming 50-over World Cup. We needed to assess where the squad is and get everyone in the right frame of mind,” Moreeng said on Friday.

Moreeng was assisted by Dillon du Preez, the former Knights pace bowler, and the head coach, who still has to finalise his assistants, said he was impressed by his work.

Proteas vice-captain Chloe Tryon, who has been signed again by the Hobart Hurricanes for the Women’s Big Bash in Australia, said by focusing on the basics she has come out of the week-long camp happy with her progress.

“I just went back to basics in all aspects – batting, bowling and fielding – because it’s been a while since I played. So I just tried to keep it pretty simple and not just jump right in. I wanted to make sure that I mastered that first and my skills are now pretty good,” Tryon said.