Cape Town — Proteas Women’s captain Sune Luus believes for her team to consistently challenge world champions Australia the formation of a women’s SA20 League has to be accelerated.
Luus’ side created history at ICC Women’s T20 World Cup over the past week when they became the first senior South African national cricket team to qualify for a World Cup final.
Unfortunately, the Proteas fell short by 19 runs against the Aussies in the showpiece at Newlands.
There is, however, another women’s T20 World Cup next year in Bangladesh for the Proteas to have another crack at winning a piece of major silverware.
For this goal to be achieved it is imperative that the Proteas continue to grow and develop as a unit and individually, especially with the Women’s Premier League (WPL) set to be launched in India next month.
The best women’s players in the world will be on show at the WPL, but only three of the Proteas’ T20 World Cup squad — Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon — will be involved. Former captain Dane van Niekerk was also picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, but she missed out on World Cup selection due to fitness grounds.
Luus believes it is of paramount importance that, especially the young players within the Proteas squad, get regular exposure to playing at the highest level possible prior to stepping up to international cricket.
Of the four T20 World Cup semi-finalists, the Proteas were the only team without a high-quality domestic T20 competition that features both local and overseas players.
“Hopefully we get an SA20 for women as well. I think that would really, really help South African women's cricket, especially to create the depth that we keep talking about,” Luus said.
“I think if you look at all those leagues in the countries, it's in the top three nations. And that's why they're so good. And that's why they have that depth, because they have leagues where, I think, overseas players come and play and you get used to playing with them and against them.
“And when a youngster like Annerie Dercksen comes up to the stage, she's not looking at Ellyse Perry going … wow, it's, you know who … playing against her for this first time. Ellyse might have played with her in a team or something like that, if that makes sense. So, I think that's something we really need to look at. I think we've been asking for a very long time for an SA league.
“I know it's budget constrained, and there's always resources and all those things. But I think, like I said, we've given our girls the best chance we could have. And it's up to Cricket South Africa and everyone involved to kind of make that happen and give it our best shot.”
Cricket SA chief executive Pholetsi Moseki is fully aware of the challenges his organisation faces to uplift the overall standard of the women’s game in the country, but is committed to working out a plan that is attainable.
“For us, we have always wanted to have a women’s tournament but we have to look at it properly from a structural point of view,” Moseki said.
“Most of our girls are semi-pro. So, the first part is to get all the players fully professional. Currently it is the 14 nationally contracted players plus another 10 players. That’s 24 players. We need to convert the other 30 players to be fully professional.
“It has always been our plan to have an SA20 Women’s League as soon as possible and try to mirror that of the men.
“But we can’t have a SA20 for women if we don’t fully professionalise the tier below the Proteas and that is something we are currently engaged in active discussions about.”
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