MOMENTUM Proteas women have big tours lined up for the next 12 months in their hopes to qualify for the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup. In its bid to give the national women’s team the opportunity to face the world’s toughest opposition, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is happy to announce that the Proteas will host England, the West Indies, New Zealand and Bangladesh in 2016, with five televised T20 matches scheduled against England and the Windies, a first in South Africa for the national women’s team.
The much anticipated series begins with England, who will travel to South Africa from February 2 to 21 in a three-match One-Day International (ODI) and three-match T20 series that will see the last two T20 matches, at PPC Newlands and Bidvest Wanderers Stadiums, played as televised joint double-headers with the Proteas men’s T20s against Australia.
“This is a huge opportunity and very exciting times for women’s cricket,” said the Proteas head coach, Hilton Moreeng. “The team has done incredibly well over the last two years and the women’s game in South Africa has grown in leaps and bounds since the introduction of Momentum as a sponsor. For us to play in front of big home crowds as joint double-headers with the Proteas is golden and we welcome this. We would like to thank both CSA and SuperSport for helping to move the women’s game to greater heights.”
The three ODIs against England will form part of the ICC Women’s Championship, the qualification tournament for the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup that will take place in England. South Africa, currently in third place on the log, will look to win the series and continue their lead on England, who are currently fourth.
“It goes without saying that every match in all tours is a must-win, but it will be particularly satisfying if we could beat England, who has been one of our toughest competitors yet,” Moreeng said. “The Women’s Championship tournament has brought about a new dimension to the way in which ODIs are played with so much at stake and has almost levelled the playing field when it comes to planning fixtures with other sides. It allows a developing team like ours to be exposed to the world’s best sides and with each match situation we are exposed to, we can only improve.”
South Africa will also host the West Indies from March 22 to April 9 in a three-match ODI and T20 series in East London, Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as Bangladesh from September 10 to 25, in a five-match ODI and three-match T20 series in Potchefstroom, Kimberley and Bloemfontein. New Zealand, who is sixth on the ICC Women’s Championship log, will tour South Africa in a seven-match ODI series that will take place in Kimberley, Paarl and Stellenbosch from October 8 to 24. The last time the two sides met was when South Africa knocked the White Ferns out of the ICC Women’s World T20 in 2014.
