Johannesburg - If one were to grade the South African women’s team’s tour to England out of 10, the mark would be 1.5.
That would match the results one win against Sri Lanka, and a draw in the Test match of a disastrous tour that flipped the narrative about the Proteas, who, not so long ago, were a feel good story for Cricket South Africa amidst the administrative implosions and subsequent controversy unleashed by the Social Justice and Nation-building hearings.
The Proteas won seven out of 12 bilateral series between the 2017 and 2022 World Cups. They reached the semi-finals in both of those tournaments, finishing second on the log after the round-robin phase in the last tournament in New Zealand earlier this year.
In the T20 format, they shook off a horrendous showing in the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2018, and won five of eight subsequent series and reached the semi-finals of the 2020 tournament.
There was optimism heading to England this year. However, what unfolded on the field and in the dressing room, must serve as a wake up call for CSA and in particular the new director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe who has been in England the last few days to gain a first hand account of why the results have gone south so rapidly.
Nkwe revealed that there’d been an expectation that some of the household names in the team would step away from the international game in an 18-month period culminating at the T20 World Cup next year.
Mignon du Preez has already dropped Test and One-Day Internationals, and there’s a strong chance that Shabnim Ismail, Trisha Chetty and maybe Marizanne Kapp will do the same after next year’s tournament in South Africa.
There was an expectation too that Lizelle Lee would be in that group. But then she dropped a bombshell, by retiring after the once-off Test against England.
She has subsequently, in a BBC podcast, cited her unhappiness with CSA’s fitness policies. In particular she highlighted unhappiness about a prescribed weight and also the skinfolds tests.
Cricket SA’s high performance department is understood to be placing a greater emphasis on players’ fitness for the coming season.
There was alarm at some of the fitness figures from last season and CSA has conducted seminars with provincial strength and conditioning coaches to have the unions more aligned with CSA’s demands.
The current generation of Dane van Niekerk, Kapp, Ismail, Chloe Tryon, Chetty, Ayabonga Khaka and Masabatha Klaas have largely known success even if they didn’t win a global title together.
The fact that they dragged South Africa from being outsiders at World Cups to contenders is a tribute to them, but also Cricket SA and certainly a sponsor like Momentum, which invested in the women’s game locally.
That era, it would seem, is past its peak, but CSA must hope that in particular, Van Niekerk and Kapp can squeeze out some more big performances for next year’s T20 World Cup, because it would be a disaster if South Africa doesn’t at least qualify for the semi-finals.
Beyond that the England tour has shown that firmer structures need to be put in place domestically for the women’s game.
“We need to strengthen it, not just at the highest level, but all the way down to grassroots and retaining our women cricketers from mini cricket all the way through,” Nkwe said.
South Africa hosts provincial 50-over and T20 competitions, but both get limited exposure and as Laura Wolvaardt explained, don’t really prepare players for the bright lights, scrutiny nor standard of competition that exists in the international game.
“It is tough for us,” Wolvaardt said. “England and Australia have full-on domestic leagues. Their players are exposed to a high standard of cricket and a higher level of international players throughout the year.
“A lot of our girls are getting their first exposure to players of this high a level, international quality bowlers, playing on TV and playing in front of crowds. It’s a lot to take in because they don’t get this kind of thing playing in provincial cricket back home. It is definitely a concern and something I hope people are looking at for the future.”
Nkwe said CSA is doing so, but the organisation faces financial limitations. It is why it is vital that the new domestic T20 League, due to start in January, gets off the ground, because the investment that will arise through that competition will help to fund the women’s domestic game.
In the meanwhile, with the T20 World Cup in mind, South Africa needs to do all it can to close the noticeable gap that has opened up between the Proteas and the likes of England and Australia in terms of style and strategy.
“A lot of stuff has been discussed and worked on. It’s now about improving on those areas in which we fell short,” Hilton Moreeng, the side’s head coach said at the end of the tour.
Moreeng has been in the job for 10 years, and there’s a likelihood that he’ll step away at the end of the World Cup, when his contract ends.
Dinesha Devnarain, the SA under19 coach, who will oversee that team’s challenge at the under-19 Women’s World Cup in January, which will also be held here, is a candidate to take over the role with the senior team.
“Between now and the World Cup we need to press the refresh button,” said Moreeng. “Everyone is excited for the journey ahead, the skills we want to work on as individuals and as a collective.”
Moreeng put a positive spin on the exposure the youngsters got in England, perhaps because he oversaw something similar when Van Niekerk and Tryon’s generation was coming through.
However, the time that team had to develop isn’t available to the current generation, and CSA has a big task ahead, to ensure the Proteas aren’t watching a home World Cup from the couch once the group stages are completed.
@shockerhess