Placing our hopes on the lady Proteas

Old staunch cricket supporters haven’t all jumped on the growing bandwagon of women’s cricket over the last few years.

The aging chauvinistic traditionalists scoff at the mere idea of women playing the game, complaining that they bowl a lot slower, don’t hit the ball as far and are not as fast between the wickets as their male counterparts.

While you certainly can’t deny the factual points in any of these, I think it’s fantastic having another national cricket team to support.

It gives us two bites at the cherry for winning a World Cup.

But let’s be honest, we’ve all given up on the idea of the men ever winning it, so the fairer sex are pretty much our only hope of ever landing one of cricket’s holy grails.

And in stark comparison to the current state of affairs in our national men’s team, the women’s team looks in decent shape to spring a surprise at the World T20 strating in Australia tomorrow.

Six of South Africa’s 15-member squad have been on the international stage for longer than a decade and four more women have been around for at least half a decade.

Led by all-rounder Dane van Niekerk, the team can compete with the best on paper.

Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt have proven themselves as a solid opening pair.

In the middle the Proteas will look for the bulk of their runs from veteran Mignon du Preez and Van Niekerk, with big hitters in seamer Marizanne Kapp and Chloe Tryon very capable of clearing the rope.

Shabnim Ismail, Kapp, Masabatha Klaas, Van Niekerk and mystery spinner Sune Luus make up a well-rounded bowling department, with the experienced Trisha Chetty keeping wicket.

But if there is anything our beleaguered cricketing men have taught us at big tournaments other than that chronic choking is an actual disease is at that level handling the pressure outweighs your God-given physical abilities.

Therefore the fact that our women’s side are only ranked sixth going into the tournament means as little as the great success the men’s side has achieved between World Cups.

If they can build on their run to the semifinals of the 50-over World Cup in 2017, there is no reason Van Niekerk can’t lead her side all the way to the final.

And how special would that be if they can show our men how to win a trophy?

Go Proteas!

Jaco van der Merwe is The Citizen’s Head of Sport.

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