OPINION: Our Proteas women, like the men, deserve more Test cricket

South Africa’s women’s cricket team may have been easily beaten by India in their one-off Test in Chennai on Monday, but they fought hard and anyone who watched some of the action will surely agree our women cricketers should be playing more Test cricket.

It is the same problem with our Proteas men’s team … they simply aren’t playing enough of the red-ball game, and that’s a huge pity.

Laura Wolvaardt and her team were always going to be on the back foot against the classy Indian team in their own conditions and so it proved over the Test match, with India’s batters playing beautifully on a wicket that gave the South Africans little chance of skittling them cheaply.

Having scored a whopping 603/6 in their first innings, India were in control of the match from the start. South Africa’s response was good with totals of 266 and 373.

There were some big contributions by among others Wolvaardt and Sune Luus, who both scored centuries.

Good Test cricket

What I really liked about the match was that it was proper Test cricket played between two good teams.

There are some great women’s cricketers playing the game around the world, many of them in the Indian team, many in England, Sri Lanka, Australia, and yes, also in South Africa.

Watching Wolvaardt in action is always a joy, but Luus was just as good in this match, while Marizanne Kapp remains one of the best all-rounders in the game. South Africa’s bowlers may have struggled in this Test, but in other, more favourable conditions they could have been a handful, as we’ve seen in limited overs cricket.

I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but SA cricket bosses should really push for both our men’s and women’s teams to play more of the red-ball stuff. It remains, by far, the best test in cricket.

Next up for our women are three T20 internationals against India, also in Chennai, and let’s hope Wolvaardt and Co will be a little more competitive than they were in the Test match and again show just how good a team they really are. The three matches are on Friday, Saturday and next Tuesday.