Stand-in captain, Suné Luus, says the Proteas women’s cricket team has an opportunity to emulate Shaun Pollock’s men’s Proteas team of 1998 when South Africa beat Australia to win the gold medal in the sport’s only other appearance at the Commonwealth Games.
Her comments come as the ICC announce that South Africa has secured qualification for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as women’s cricket makes its first ever Games appearance in 22 editions.
“Participating in the Commonwealth Games will be an awesome experience for the teams and a tremendous opportunity to take cricket to new audiences.” – Momentum Proteas Stand-in Captain, Suné Luus
“We have been constantly improving as a side and will go into the event hoping to emulate our men’s team, which won gold the only previous time cricket featured in the Games.”
Cricket is the first discipline to announce qualifying teams for the prestigious multi-sport event scheduled from 28 July to 8 August.
South Africa join home team England in the eight-team Twenty20 competition which also includes Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and a country from the West Indies.
The six qualifiers have secured qualification as a result of their standings in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I Team Rankings on 1 April 2021.
As per the qualification process, the winner of a designated qualifying event will determine which country from the Caribbean region gets to participate as athletes will be representing their individual countries and not the West Indies as they would at ICC events.
The last participating team will be decided through a qualifying tournament to be held by 31 January 2022, details of which will be announced in due course.
ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice says: “We are incredibly proud and excited to be part of Birmingham 2022 and it is a fantastic opportunity for us to continue to grow the women’s game globally.
“We are committed to maintaining the momentum that saw 86,174 fans packed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup last year and Birmingham 2022 gives us another global stage on which to showcase the women’s game.”
The Commonwealth Games cricket tournament will take place at the iconic Edgbaston Stadium, with tickets set to go on sale later this year.
Photo 1 Caption: South Africa join home team England in the eight-team Twenty20 competition which also includes Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and a country from the West Indies for the first-ever women’s tournament at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Photo: ICC
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