A World Cup comes with its challenges and expectation, but even more so when it’s on home soil. That comes with added pressure but as skipper Sune Luus has reiterated, the focus is on cricket and to take each game as it comes and not to get ahead of themselves.

Women’s cricket has come a long way and this momentous occasion will be remembered for a long time. South Africa recently hosted the inaugural U19 Women’s World Cup and despite only losing one game and missing a place in the semi-finals, there were many positives and signs that women’s cricket is moving in the right direction.

“I don’t think we quite realise what we’ve already achieved without playing a game. It’s going to be awesome on Friday just seeing everyone coming out.

“Apart from the cricketing things and apart from being successful and winning games I think it’s the responsibility of inspiring a nation as well. Inspiring young girls to get out of their comfort zones and to imagine a career in which they can do anything.

“That’s one of our biggest roles as a team we would like to play, not just winning games but also inspiring a nation to give them that opportunity to know they can be anything they want.”

Although the memories from past World Cups might not be a sweet thing for South Africans to ponder, the Proteas Women have shown immense growth with every tournament.

They’ve fallen short in both previous T20 World Cups but the most recent was against the eventual champions, Australia. Even though it stung, they narrowly missed out and that’s probably worst, to come that close but still be so far.

The team is hopeful this is the year they can go all the way and reach the final and hopefully lift that trophy in front of all their family and supporters. But one game at a time. First up is Sri Lanka on Friday.

“Newlands is always a good ground to play on, in terms of Sri Lanka they going to throw a lot of spin at us, so that is something we need to address and we are also very well prepared for that.”

Sune Luus has been the stand-in captain while Dane van Niekerk has been on the sidelines so she’s no stranger to leading the Proteas Women in a World Cup but this one, in particular, holds more sentiment than the rest, one would think. She reiterated how massive this opportunity is and how proud her family is.

“It’s massive. Funny you should bring up my family, my parents just missed their flight. The moment I phoned my dad and told him this is how it was going to be, he started crying. He was just so proud.

“I think it’s just a massive massive honour to lead a country, not just in any series but at a home World Cup. I think that makes it even more special.

“They’ve already checked in, had breakfast and just missed the boarding time.”

She’s hopeful they’ll be there in time for the opener to support her and the team.