Proteas women lay the foundation for a professional future

Though no firm plans or structures are in place yet to make it happen, local cricket authorities have committed to making the women’s game fully professional following the success of the Proteas at the recently concluded T20 World Cup in Cape Town.

Members of the SA women’s squad have national contracts, but the domestic game remains largely amateur, whereas provincial men’s players are able to make a living from the sport.

Speaking at a media conference yesterday, Cricket South Africa director of cricket Enoch Nkwe admitted a lot of things still needed to fall into place to ensure women received the same opportunities as men, but he believed they were on the right track.

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“Their results have attracted different markets and offered a different perspective of women’s cricket,” Nkwe said after the SA women’s team made a breakthrough last week, becoming the first national senior cricket side to reach a World Cup final.

“We’re very excited about women’s cricket, and this has given a much deeper meaning to the game, so we want to provide as much support as we can.”

Potential support

Insisting they were making real progress, CSA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki said potential sponsors were starting to see sufficient value in the women’s game.

“Commercial partners no longer see women’s cricket as a CSI (corporate social investment) project. They see commercial value in it and there are quite a lot of corporates which want to partner with women’s cricket,” Moseki said.

“We are having multiple discussions with potential corporate partners which can see that women’s sport is as good as men’s sport.”

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National captain Sune Luus said it had been a long road for women’s cricket, and she gave credit to former players who had battled to gain respect in a sport which is still dominated by men, despite the quality and class displayed by their female counterparts.

“I think women from the 1990s who played for the Proteas started this journey and I think we’re just following up on what they’re been doing,” Luus said.

“Everyone before us played a part in what we’ve done, so it has taken generations of players to lead up to this moment.

“We’re very grateful to those players who played an important role in getting us to the point we’re at now.”