“Sune and I went to the same school. When we were at school, women’s cricket was at a stage where she had to play in boys’ teams. To get to where we are now, in our cricketing lifetimes, where we now have a major ICC (women’s) event in our home country is great,” said Rassie van der Dussen on the sidelines of the launch of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup to be played in South Africa in 2023.

Van der Dussen was particularly pleased that ticket rates for the World Cup games would be affordable to ensure that families could visit stadiums to watch games live.

“Another great thing we heard today was how accessible tickets are going to be. You want to encourage families to watch as many of these live games as possible.”

Van der Dussen injured his finger in England earlier this year, resulting in him being ruled out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad.

While he is disappointed to be missing a major cricket event, he recognizes that it is a part of a professional sport. “It’s tough, the timing of it wasn’t great, but it’s sport, it happens. There’s no point in moping about it.”

Van der Dussen also commented on the SA20 tournament, scheduled to be played in January.

“It’s here to stay. Some world-class outfits there. The standard of cricket we’ve had in South Africa has not been broadcasted. Some local heroes coming through.”

Finally, with the World T20 winning in a couple of weeks, Van der Dussen stressed that it is imperative for South Africa to peak at the right time in the tournament.

Although the Proteas lost to India in a bilateral series, it will be forgotten if they win the World Cup.