Howzat for a talented cricketer?
Brakpan Central resident Karen Woest (15) is a female cricketer who is the definition of girl power.
The Hoërskool Hugenote (Springs) pupil recently earned selection to the girls’ u-18 South African Action Cricket team who will compete in the Indoor Junior World Series, in Brisbane, Australia, in September and October.
Teams from Australia, New Zealand, England and Pakistan will battle it out at the tournament.
Woest’s mother, Marie Kruger-Woest, will accompany the team as their manager.
Woest’s love affair with the game started while she was playing backyard cricket with her neighbour’s grandchildren.
She attended Strubenvale Primary School and would go to her grandmother, in Springs, after school.
On one such day at her grandmother’s house she read the Herald’s sister newspaper, the Springs Advertiser, and saw that Springs Old Boys Cricket Club were having trials.
After contacting the club she started playing outdoor cricket in August 2012 and never looked back.
She was then spotted by her primary school cricket coach and was asked to join the school’s boys’ team.
At first she was scared, but she plucked up the courage and started playing for Strubenvale Primary School’s first team in 2013.
In January, last year, the youngster started playing for the Easterns women’s team and now turns out in club cricket for the KwaThema women’s team in the Easterns League.
Her Action Cricket career began in 2013 and it quickly became a sport in which she has done remarkably well, first achieving provincial colours, and now national colours.
She also plays for and coaches the Easterns Epilepsy Action Cricket team.
Her cricketing dreams are to meet legendary South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis and to play for the national team.
Getting to Australia, however, is no cheap feat and the young cricketer and her mother will be embarking on various fund-raising projects to raise the required finances.
If you would like to assist contact Kruger-Woest on 084 057 9014.
