Dane leads the charge for our women
THE growth of the Proteas women’s cricket side can be measured by Dane van Niekerk’s development from a prodigiously talented teenager to their jack-of-all-trades captain.
It would be too early to say women’s cricket has arrived but through her and the team’s efforts, they are starting to make the similar strides their football counterparts have made with less resources.
Van Niekerk is aware of the impact on society their success could have for women’s sports even though the gender pay disparities are not about to disappear.
“The most important we identified as a team is that we want to leave a legacy. We want the world to know not only about cricket, we want them to know about women’s cricket because it’s very important for the growth of the game and sport in general,” Van Niekerk said.
“We know the sport still has some way to go but we want the sport to become the topic of most households and we also want the sport to become the No 1 female sport in SA.”
With Van Niekerk making her international debut at the age of 16 against the West Indies in Newcastle in 2009, she comfortably beat recently capped Proteas test cricketer Duanne Olivier to the honour of being Centurion High School’s first international cricketer in both formats.
Van Niekerk has not clocked up a quarter century’s existence in this realm but it seems like the 23-year-old has been with the team forever.
The transformative nature of the women’s team has not only seen her take over as captain from Mignon du Preez, but also watch Shabnim Ismail, Chloe Tyron, Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus and Marcia Letsoalo all become important cogs in the team’s machine.
Van Niekerk believes they are close to the promised land of beating Australia, currently the world’s best women’s cricket team. “Since the time I walked into the team in 2009, I reckon 60%-75% of the players I started with are still there and that growing up together has been important for us.
“We know what works for us and we click as a unit. Skill sets are starting to show and we can see why they’re in the side now.
“The important thing about knowing each other is that the team is getting better and stronger.”
She added: “We’ve beaten the West Indies once or twice and we drew a five-match ODI series against them.
We want the world to know not only about cricket, we want them to know women’s cricket
“Last year the West Indies beat us but it was a very competitive series. We have beaten England and New Zealand. Australia is the only one we haven’t beaten but if the day is good, maybe we’ll get over the line.”
During their successful World Cup qualifying campaign where they narrowly lost to India in Sri Lanka, Van Niekerk also became the first South African women cricketer to collect 100 one-day international scalps.
Being a legspinner, that’s a feat that eluded the likes of Paul Adams (29), Nicky Boje (96) and Johan Botha (72).
The importance of the landmark was totally lost on Van Niekerk.
“I knew about the 100 wickets two days before the game but I was caught up in the moment to a point where I completely forgot about the achievement,” she said.
“Mignon had to remind me about it and it made it so special because my teammates remembered when I’d forgotten about the moment. When you first play the game, it’s about the participation, not the landmarks.”