The women’s cricket team to begin preparation for England tour from this Sunday.
India Women might have decided against traveling to England citing rising COVID-19 cases in the country, but South African Women are not in a mood to miss out on the opportunity of having some actions since the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 in March 2020.
South African Women’s cricket team has been out of cricket field since reaching the T20 Women’s World Cup semi-finals in Australia earlier this March following the suspension of cricket across the world earlier this year due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
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Though Indian women’s team pulled out of the tour, South African women’s team is certainly on course for the proposed tour of England in September amid the Coronavirus crisis as Cricket South Africa on Thursday (July 23) announced a 24-member squad for the limited-overs series in the UK.
South African Women will gather for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown, as the CSA has called up 24 players for a week-long camp at the High-Performance Centre in Pretoria where they will train together at a bio-secure environment for the England series. They will begin training from Sunday (July 26).
Following the week-long camp, the women’s cricketers will return to their respective provinces for individual training from August 2 to 14 and then will again assemble for a two-week camp from August 16 to 27 before heading the UK for a white-ball series against England Women.
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CSA Director of Cricket Graeme Smith stated: “The projected tour of England will have a heavy emphasis on the 50-over format as we start preparing for the ICC Women’s World Cup which is still scheduled to be played in New Zealand early next year.”
He further added, “We have been through a frustrating period with our Momentum Proteas not able to build on the excellent form they showed at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and next week’s camp represents an important new starting point.”
Noteworthy, the Proteas players and support staff are currently undergoing COVID-19 tests and they will need to clear the test again to attend the second camp.
Here’s South African Women Squad:
Dane van Niekerk, Lizelle Lee, Marizanne Kapp, Mignon du Preez, Suné Luus, Chloe Tryon, Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Maria Klaas, Trisha Chetty, Sinalo Jafta, Laura Wolvaardt, Tumi Sekhukhune, Nadine de Klerk, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Nondumiso Shangase, Faye Tunnicliffe, Zintle Mali, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Lara Goodall, Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Robyn Searle, Andrie Steyn.
(With PTI Inputs)