{"id":219560,"date":"2022-03-16T23:26:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T21:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/womens-cricket-world-cup-2022-how-south-africa-fares-on-the-world-stage\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T23:26:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T21:26:05","slug":"womens-cricket-world-cup-2022-how-south-africa-fares-on-the-world-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/womens-cricket-world-cup-2022-how-south-africa-fares-on-the-world-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022: how South Africa fares on the world stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2022 the role of hosting the Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup<\/a> went to New Zealand. The tournament, held every four years, began on 4 March, with the final scheduled for 3 April. Second ranked South Africa<\/a> was the only African team to make it into the competition. Although Zimbabwe makes the world one day international rankings<\/a>, the team never qualified. We asked sports management academic and women\u2019s sport expert Kamilla Swart about the Proteas\u2019 history \u2013 and their performance at the tournament. After qualifying in a group stage, eight teams play round robin matches before four teams play semi finals to determine the finals.<\/em> <\/p>\n

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What\u2019s South Africa\u2019s history at the cup?<\/h2>\n

The 2022 International Cricket Council (ICC) Women\u2019s World Cup is the 12th edition<\/a> of the most anticipated tournament in the sport. The women\u2019s cup was first held in 1973 with only seven teams. South Africa\u2019s women\u2019s national cricket team is known as the Proteas (like the men\u2019s team) after the national flower. They first participated in the world cup in India in 1997, reaching the quarter-finals. The team had returned to the world arena for the first time, after the end of an international sports boycott<\/a> against the white minority government\u2019s apartheid policies.<\/p>\n

In the 2000 edition South Africa fared well, beaten by Australia in the semi-finals. But when the women\u2019s world cup was hosted on home soil for the first time, the country only finished 7th in the group stage. And 2009 was also a nightmare with South Africa exiting in the group stage. In 2013 in India they reached the next stage \u2013 the \u2018super six\u2019 \u2013 to finish 6th. Returning to form in England in 2017, the Proteas again made the semi-finals, losing to England by two wickets.<\/p>\n

In 2022, South Africa entered the tournament with the hope of finally bringing it home \u2013 and as the continent\u2019s only representatives. Other teams<\/a> include Australia (six-time winners), Bangladesh (making their debut), England (four-time winners), India (twice runners-up), Pakistan, New Zealand and the West Indies (once runners-up).<\/p>\n

Due to COVID-19, qualification for the 2022 cup was decided through world rankings. The first seven editions were invitational, while a qualifying event took place from the 2005 edition in South Africa. 2017 witnessed the launch of the ICC Women\u2019s Championship<\/a>. It was conceptualised to grow the women\u2019s game through a more extensive bilateral playing programme.<\/p>\n

How is South Africa looking this year?<\/h2>\n

South Africa\u2019s women started their campaign as the second best team in the current ICC women\u2019s one day international standing. The Proteas came to this world cup with five consecutive series wins prior to the COVID period in January 2020. They had beaten New Zealand, Pakistan, India and West Indies. <\/p>\n

In their first encounter<\/a> against Bangladesh at the Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup 2022, a rusty team managed to win by 32 runs, with Ayabonga Khaka<\/a> declared player of the match for her outstanding bowling figures. However, they managed to score only 207 runs in their 50 overs. Taking on Pakistan next<\/a>, South Africa posted a target of 224 runs and just managed to restrict Pakistan to 217. Shabnim Ismail<\/a> was pick of the bowlers. <\/p>\n

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\"Ateam<\/div>\n

<\/a>

The Proteas celebrate a wicket against England.<\/span> JOHN COWPLAND\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Africa against England was a nail-biting match<\/a>. South Africa restricted current champions England to only 235 with the exceptional bowling of Marizanne Kapp. This was followed by a great display of batting from the whole team, particularly the youngster Laura Wolvaardt<\/a>, captain Sun\u00e9 Luus<\/a> and Marizanne Kapp<\/a>. The team had managed to grab another two points. For her all-round effort Kapp was declared player of the match. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s without a doubt that South Africa are an equal contender for the 2022 cup despite being without their captain, Dane van Niekerk, who is injured.<\/p>\n

How is the women\u2019s game faring generally?<\/h2>\n

South Africa\u2019s men\u2019s team has not been very successful recently, while the opposite<\/a> is true for the women\u2019s team. The current team is a mix of youthful and experienced cricketers who are now consistently performing well on the international circuit. Wolvaardt is still very young at this stage, however, she has broken several records. She\u2019s the youngest woman to pass the 1,000-run mark and the youngest South African (female or male) to 2,000 runs. Ismail, an experienced campaigner, managed to grab 150 wickets for South Africa in one day internationals and became the 7th player to take this record.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Women’s Afcon 2022: Nigeria sweats as Morocco and Cote d’Ivoire usher in new era<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Overall, Women\u2019s cricket is gaining global attention. Increasingly, sponsors are available, matches are broadcast and spectators are present. The women\u2019s game is on the path to mainstream recognition. One can no longer say that cricket is just a men\u2019s game. There is no longer a \u201cman of the match\u201d but rather a \u201cplayer of the match\u201d announced. There\u2019s, no \u201cbatsman\u201d but rather a \u201cbatter\u201d. <\/p>\n

Sports is not just used to empower but also to raise awareness against gender-based violence. Cricket South Africa\u2019s Black Day campaign<\/a> was launched in 2021 to highlight violence against women. The ICC has also put the women\u2019s game development as a top priority on their agenda.<\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2022 the role of hosting the Women\u2019s Cricket World Cup went to New Zealand. The tournament, held every four years, began on 4 March, with the final scheduled for 3 April. Second ranked South Africa was the only African team to make it into the competition. Although Zimbabwe makes the world one day international […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-219560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/womens-cricket-world-cup-2022-how-south-africa-fares-on-the-world-stage.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}