Former South Africa women’s cricket team captain Dane Van Niekerk lashed out at the Australian media for calling her a fat-shamed cricketer in an article following her shocking retirement from international cricket.
Van Niekerk slammed the well-known Australian media organization Fox Sports for their controversial article, where the publication claimed that she was 'fat shamed' for the ICC tournaments and that it made her retire from the game of cricket.
Notably, Van Niekerk was not picked for the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup after she failed a fitness test. It is being said that she completed her 2K run 18 seconds slower than the required time of 9 minutes, and 30 seconds, and due to this, she was overlooked for the 2023 T20 World Cup.
Taking to Twitter, Dane Van Niekerk expressed her anger by saying: “Excuse me?? Fat shamed?? Are u serious??," the South African cricketer wrote on Twitter alongside the link to the piece. "Too be truly honest…this broke me... again…it breaks more than anyone will know…”
Earlier, Van Niekerk hinted about her retirement from international cricket with a cryptic Instagram post, which reads: “You have to accept that some chapters in our lives have to close without closure. There is no point in losing yourself by trying to fix what’s meant to stay broken.”
Later, Van Niekerk’s partner and teammate Marizanne Kapp confirmed her retirement with an 'End of an Era' post on Instagram.
Notably, Van Niekerk is currently playing in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2023, where she is part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side, but she has yet to get any games in the event.
