OPINION: Women’s cricket needs more support to make further progress

The Proteas women’s team need more support from Cricket South Africa (CSA) if they are to continue to improve and ride the wave of positivity around their recent performances at global tournaments.

For the first time in their history the Proteas reached the final of a 50-over Women’s World Cup in India, losing to the hosts.

It is the third straight major final that they have reached, after they qualified for their first T20 World Cup final on home soil in 2023, but went down to Australia, and then made the final of the 2024 edition in the UAE as well, but lost to New Zealand.

A key cog in their recent success has been the fantastic form of captain Laura Wolvaardt, who is clearly a big match player and thrives on the biggest stage, as she has finished as the overall top run scorer at all of the World Cups in which her side have made the final.

At 26 years old Wolvaardt still has plenty of cricket left in her, and with her impressive leadership, it should only be a matter of time before her team win a major final, if they receive the necessary support from CSA.

Senior players

A number of senior players will be finishing up their international careers in the coming few years and there are not many players standing out as obvious replacements for them.

In the past few years, the Proteas have already seen players like Lizelle Lee, Shabnim Ismail and Mignon du Preez retire, while Marizanne Kapp (35) has likely played her last 50-over World Cup.

Dané van Niekerk also called it quits, but has reversed that decision, which is good news.

Tazmin Brits (34), Masabata Klaas (34) and Ayabonga Khaka (33) are other players likely nearing the end of their international careers.

What the Proteas women need is a stronger local domestic competition, as the Pro50 and Pro20 leagues currently in place don’t seem to be producing enough top talent. Maybe an SA20 women’s league is what is needed to give the domestic women’s game a bit of a boost?

But whatever the case, CSA need to step up and give greater support to the women’s game.