Ahead of the WT20 World Cup semifinals against Australia, Proteas Women Captain, Dane van Niekerk, spoke about what her team stands for, especially when it comes to inspiring women, writes by Ongama Gcwabe.

In the cricketing world the Women’s T20 World Cup has been a highlight of 2020.

It has once again shown the quality of women’s cricketers and the importance of promoting, preserving and prioritizing the women’s game.

The stands were always filled with passionate fans and the field with entertaining cricketers.

I always wondered what type of characters are in the Proteas side, what the team culture is like and what the team stands for.

Proteas Captain, Dane van Niekerk, as calm as she always is, answered all my questions:

“We’re a diverse team with older and younger players. Which helps with balance in the squad. Older players keep the youngsters grounded,” she said exclusively to Cricket Fanatics Magazine.

“Players like Nonkululeko Mlaba who is only 19 years of age always keeps me and the older players on our toes.

“We have created a culture that is based on respecting each other and playing for each other. We enjoy each other’s company.

“Our goal and what we stand for is to promote the sport for women to take up the sport. We’re all about making things better for the players who will come after us.”

The World Cup is in Australia but for us in South Africa, we are still waking up to more and more infuriating news of the ongoing women and child abuse.

I asked Dane what she thinks of that and I must say, her answer really inspired and humbled me.

“We stand for South African women,” she said boldly.

“We fight that in a way that we know best which is to play cricket. Being heroes is a massive thing for us. We’re sisters, we’re wives which is more than just being cricketers.”

The Proteas have been very successful in the group stages of the tournament but now they take on the defending champions Australia.

Even though their star player Ellyse Perry is ruled out of the World Cup, they still pose a threat.

“Going into the semi’s, we have to better in the field in terms of our fielding,” she added. “Myself and Lizelle Lee must come firing at the top of the order to give the middle order the platform to play their natural game.”

Our Proteas Women’s team take on Australia on Thursday in the T20 World Cup semi-final at 10 am CAT.

Photo: EPA/Richard Wainwright