South Africa‘s qualification for the 2009 ICC
Women’s Cricket World Cup has put everyone involved in the administration of women’s
cricket in top spirits and has reignited the passion to rebuild the women’s game
in our country, and unearth talent in all parts of SA.
There are
few prouder than the hard working President of Women’s Cricket in South Africa,
Kerri Laing, who is always searching for ways and opportunities to help the national
women’s team grow into a formidable unit.
"Everyone
involved is very proud of the team they made us extremely excited about the
future of the team.
"I think
everyone is a lot more positive about where we are, by no means do we think we
are on top of world cricket but we are closer to being able to compete with the
top four teams and a lot more confident in our own game."
With the
increased support of women’s cricket from provincial bodies, Laing and her team
decided to tweak the format of the women’s provincial league structure this
season, giving top players an opportunity to pit their skills against one
another.
"The
provincial league was an area where we tried some new formats of competition,
the idea being to have more strength vs strength games. We believe this is a
way of developing more players and the provincial bodies seemed a lot more supportive
of the women’s game."
Kerri
happily admits that there has been a tremendous increase in the amount of media
coverage women’s cricket has received.
"This was
the position we should have been in after the World Cup we hosted in 2005. The
important thing is we are eventually in this position and we need to keep the
momentum going."
There are
lots of opportunities for South
Africa’s national women’s players to shine
on the international stage in 2009. Aside from the ICC Women’s Cricket World
Cup, the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 will be held concurrently to the men’s
event later in the year.
Kerri says:
"I think it is a magnificent opportunity for women’s cricket world wide to show
what we have got, from a South African perspective it is an ideal stage for our
girls to let everyone know we are back competing with the top teams."
She once
again has told gsport that sponsorship and more regular competition are needed
to further grow the women’s game in South Africa.
Cricket South Africa is
planning at least four camps in the lead up to the World Cup. There is also an
away tour confirmed for August 2008, the same time Graeme Smith and his team
tour England.
"We are also
trying a new competition called Super 4’s which will see the top players,
divided into 4 teams (regionally) playing against each other in 20/20 and 50
over games as well as going through all the fitness testing. This we hope will
broaden our base of players to select our best team."
Currently,
one of South Africa’s top women’s cricketers is Boland captain and South
African all-rounder, Sunette Loubser, who Laing says is "one of those people
you would want on your side when you go to war", adding that "she is a bubbly
positive person who never gives up.
Sunette has
been having a great season for province and country. She took a few minutes
from her busy cricket schedule to chat to gsport about her achievements.
Congrats on leading Boland in winning the Super
Sixes. How are you feeling about this achievement?
It has been
a great season for Boland, the girls showed character all through the season,
wasn’t smooth sailing all the way, but there was always someone who stood up to
the plate and pulled us through, winning 11 out of 11 games was a dream come
true, seeing that we lost out to a unbeaten season in the final last year.
It felt
awesome being able to give that to Noor, Angus and Ilse and everyone else
at Boland who’s been supporting us all the way and putting a lot of time and
effort in.
What has been the secret to Boland’s success in the
league?
The secret
to this season was playing as a team, in the last game we said play for the one
next to you, cause it was a bit of an emotional game as well with the chance to
have an unbeaten season, Nathanael’s last game after playing together since the
start of Boland’s Women’s Cricket first team ever, and my 100’th, so we had to
get the focus back to playing as a team and not letting anything else influence
our performance.
You have had a good season. Tell us about some of
your personal highlights?
Qualifying,
yes that was absolutely amazing, i can’t wait to play against the best
opposition possible, that is the only way one can really measure where you are,
so I say bring it on, I do realise that the conditions will be different, but
in any sport you must adapt to that, and our team is ready, a lot of hard work
has been put in during the last 2 years, and I believe that it will show.
We know that
the opposition will be much stronger than what it was in the qualifiers, but as
our assistant coach says about our team, the thing she likes most about us is
that we wont back down from a challenge, anything they, Noor, Kim and Zola asks
us to do, we will give everything to try and perfect that, and if you got that
in your teammates, knowing and trusting that they will do their best at all
times and work towards a common goal, then a team can achieve anything.
Tell us about your amazing figures of 6/1 in 4 overs
against Bermuda in the Qualifier?
Bermuda, i
think it’s a once in a lifetime experience, i hope i get the chance to
experience that again, cause it was unbelievable, but the challenge now for me
is doing something special against stronger opposition.
What are your plans going forward in the next few
months?
The SA
ladies received there new fitness programs so it’s hard work until the next
camp which will be in May, to prepare for the England tour end of July/beginning
of August, not sure of the dates. so time will remain limited at the moment, we
got to work even harder now if we want to compete against the best, no sue at
all working so hard to get somewhere and then just falling out.
What more needs to be done to further improve the
state of women’s cricket?
To improve
the state, get more girls and ladies involved in the sport, i know, it must
sound like a record that’s stuck, but the truth is, we need more
publicity, more girls got to know about this, watch it, play it and so
on, even though the publicity was improved by a 100% during the
qualifiers, it’s just not enough, not everyone’s got DSTV, or internet access
to see this and know about it, the more people know about it, for instance I
heard somewhere a suggestion to play curtain raisers to the pro 20’s for the
guys, etc.
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