By
Dane van Niekerk has revealed that her father’s recent passing was one of the key reasons for wanting to play for the Proteas Women again, following the announcement of her return to international cricket on Monday.
Van Niekerk is attempting to don the green and gold again for the first time after an abrupt end to her career two years ago, and says that the tragic incident gave her renewed purpose to play for her country.
She has been included in the training camp in Durban in preparation for the ICC Women’s World Cup in India starting next month.
"Yeah look it's been two years and out of the game, I just realised how much I miss it. Seeing the success of the team, obviously besides everything it makes you proud and you wanna be part of that and I think that's kind of the main reason,” van Niekerk said.
“Recently I went through something traumatic in my family, my dad passed away, it's almost as if something like that gave me the new 'why'. It's a very strong 'why' for me.
“It wasn't easy, there was a lot of conversations that was heard but I just think now is the right time, I think my ‘why’ is the most important thing and I wanna get back contributing to this environment."
She also explained that the process was made easier by Cricket South Africa, who were willing to let bygones be bygones.
In her statement yesterday, the former captain penned an apology to the federation for a less than palatable divorce after being left out of the T20 World Cup squad on home soil.
"At the end of the day everybody wants the same thing and that's to win a World Cup. We want South Africa to lift as many trophies as possible and wherever anybody can contribute,” she added.
“Again, just the willingness of CSA and obviously with the coach and management and all those things. It made it quite easy because of how receptive they were and I mean that comes with a lot of gratitude.
“As I said, not kind of knowing what to expect but as I said, even the chats with Enoch [Nkwe], it was just nice. The nice thing is we can all move forward, whatever happened, happened and we can just move forward and try to build a stronger environment."
