Dane van Niekerk will have to meet requirements to stand chance of Proteas Women return

Dane van Niekerk will have to meet requirements to stand chance of Proteas Women return

Former Proteas Women captain Dane van Niekerk will have to meet certain requirements in order to stand a chance of returning to the South African team, ahead of the World Cup in India.

Van Niekerk retired from international cricket in 2023 after being left out of the squad for the T20 World Cup here at home, having failed a 2km time trial. 

Cricket South Africa’s fitness standards require female players to run 2km in nine minutes and 30 seconds, and she missed the target by 18 seconds. Now having stayed away from competitive cricket for about a year and a half, van Niekerk returned to the domestic scene earlier this season with Western Province with the aim of impressing national selectors for the global showpiece. But having missed out on selection for the West Indies tour, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that she will make the cut. 

“To be honest with you we are not in a position to say that she can or cannot make it because she’s not making this tour. Anything can happen. In terms of her being in the plans, I had a chat with her in February around the things that we require for her to actually put her name back into the hat. I’m going to have to follow up with her in terms of what she thinks going forward as well”, said coach Mandla Mashimbyi.

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He also admitted that he does not plan to re-call her at the moment, but did not shut the door in case of any mishaps in the lead up to the tournament.

“In terms of that, she was not part of the plans initially, but you can never count anybody out. When the opportunity presents itself and she’s the one that’s available to make the team, or she’s fit enough to make the team, or she’s where she needs to be, then we can’t control that.”

“These tours are not cast in stone. It’s also to create depth and to see what other players can do. I’m never going to be a coach that will count a player out. Everybody in domestic cricket who’s done well is still eligible to play World Cups that are coming”, concluded Mashimbyi.

All-rounder van Niekerk represented South Africa for 14 years in 107 One Day Internationals, 86 T20 Internationals, and a solitary test match that came in 2014 against India. She scored 2,175 ODI runs and bagged 204 wickets across all formats.