Sekhukhune makes Proteas tick
She honed her skills on the streets and tennis courts of Daveyton.
Potchefstroom University’s Tumi Sekhukhune broke into the Proteas team in September last year and has rapidly become one of the most popular members of the side, an exciting young player who will help shape the future of women’s cricket in South Africa.
With her positive attitude, bouncy personality, radiant smile and livewire fielding, Sekhukhune has almost become the heartbeat of the team. But as valuable as those attributes are, it is her accurate medium-pace bowling which sets her apart. Generally bringing the ball into the right-handers, she boasts economy rates of just 4.37 in her 12 ODIs and 6.41 in 17 T20 internationals.
“It’s been great with the Proteas, I really cherish my time with them and especially knowing I am contributing, that’s when the team moves forward when everyone contributes. It’s a great honour and privilege to play for them. When I’m fielding, I just try to bring a vibe and buzz into the team. And then I’m just trying to bowl economically.
“I bowl natural in-swing, every ball I just concentrate on my head position, my bowling action and my landing foot. I just want to be consistent and land six balls on the spot. I’m not fast so people always want to line me up, they see a youngster and think there’s no experience there. But I come with variations, I have three different deliveries and I play around with slower balls and off-cutters. I’m used to batters coming hard and trying to get into me,” Sekhukhune, who is blessed with a classic action, says.
An upbringing in Daveyton, the East Rand township, is not really suitable for a future career as an international sportswoman, but Sekhukhune was fortunate that her cousins are passionate about the game; one of them, Kabelo Sekhukhune, scored a matchwinning 84 not out for Easterns in a one-day game against KZN Inland last weekend. It was her games with those boys on the streets and tennis courts of Daveyton that provided the basis of her skills.
The stroke of good fortune that really changed her life came when Easterns U19 girls coach Gift Xaka spotted her playing with her cousins and invited her to join his team. She was only 15 then, but within a couple of years she was already pushing for a place in the senior women’s side. A place in the national academy followed in 2016 and the future certainly looks bright for the tenacious 20-year-old, especially since she is now playing for North-West, the top women’s team in the country.
“In Daveyton there were not a lot of facilities so we played on the tennis court. But how do you judge length with the way the ball bounces on a tennis court? So it was really difficult but it made us the people we are,” Sekhukhune says stoically.
The diminutive Sekhukhune is certainly serving as an inspiration for all those young girls dreaming of international sport as a means of making it in life and she knows how important it is that she has an alternate career pathway mapped out through her studies.
“It’s really difficult to get bursaries but cricket gave me that. It’s nice to know for young women that that route is open for them. You need something to fall back on for when you finish cricket or you get injured, and for me that’s my finance degree,” the first-year student said.
Sekhukhune’s natural ball skills also served her well playing handball, netball, volleyball and tennis at Unity Secondary School in Daveyton, and when she is not playing sport she is an avid reader of books on philosophy, motivation or business.
Speaking at the announcement that Senwes would become the title sponsors of the North West women’s team, another step in closing the gap with the men’s game, Sekhukhune is understandably upbeat about where her cricket career is heading.
“I’m very excited and happy, people are backing us and that’s how women’s cricket will go forward. And it’s great that supporters like Potch University and Senwes treat us as humans first and cricketers second,” Sekhukhune said.
The daughter of a domestic worker mother and a father who tragically died suddenly when she was in Grade XI, the determined Sekhukhune is clearly already a wonderful human being; who knows how good a cricketer she will turn out to be because the prospects are hugely exciting.