Major challenge awaits our women cricketers

FROM its potent aromas, spell-binding sights and colourful characters, the Caribbean has the power to intoxicate even the most devout souls.

It is these type of pleasures, along with the strongest teams in the women’s game, that the Proteas have to contend with over the course of the next couple of weeks as they challenge for the ICC World T20 title in the West Indies.

After many years of being in the shadows of their male counterparts, the Proteas Women’s cricket team are now firmly on the radar.

This is primarily their own doing, after their excellent performances at the 50-overs ICC World Cup in England two years ago, where they reached the semi-finals.

While this is undoubtedly a positive, it does come with the new challenge of expectation. No longer will they quietly slip out of the country and return from a major tournament without much of a whimper in the mainstream media.

Dane van Niekerk’s team are hot property now, and their results, in conjunction with everything they do off-the-field, is of public interest too.

The men’s team have showed on previous tours to the Caribbean that the pleasure of the islands are sometimes too much to resist, and Van Niekerk and the team management face a dual job of focusing not only on the on-field results.

The task has not been made any easier with the Proteas’ not enjoying a smooth build-up to their tournament opener against Sri Lanka in St Lucia early today, after consecutive warm-up defeats.

The Proteas’ strength has always been their pace-bowling unity, but they are finding that the Caribbean surfaces are not conducive to their seam attack, with captain Van Niekerk and fellow leg-spinner Sune Luus expected to play bigger roles.

Equally, the batting department needs to find their mojo, with big-hitting Lizelle Lee needing to fire from the outset if the Proteas are to stand any chance in the competition.

One thing for sure, though, is that Van Niekerk’s team are a group of fighters and will display the traditional South African courage and determination to drive their World T20 campaign.