Photo Credit: Cricket South Africa
Ahead of a year filled with countless possibilites and opportunities, Cricket South Africa (CSA) eagerley awaits the commencement of the CSA Women’s Provincial season as the
nation prepares to host the world in two International Cricket Council (ICC) events.
With the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup taking place in South Africa in January and Februay 2023 respectively, there is a huge focus on the season’s domestic competitions, namely; the CSA Women’s Provincial One-Day and T20 Cups.
There will be 16 provincial teams split into Division One, with the country’s top six sides, and Division Two, with ten teams divided into two groups of five in Pool A and Pool B.
The North West Dragons are heading into the season as defending 50-over champions after a stellar campaign that saw them top the One-Day table. The Six Gun Grill Western Province will be looking to better their second spot in the 50-over tournament while aiming to repeat their superb unbeaten
record on their way to the T20 title last season.
Meanwhile, the Six Gun Grill Gardern Route Badgers will be chomping at the bits to get their year going after securing promotion in the previous season, which also saw the Eastern Storm drop down into Division Two.
With the 2022 / 23 action approaching, CSA Senior Cricket Manager, Johan Weyers commented: “It is a very excitng season ahead of us, the first season back to normality. Last year we played the first round of fixtures in a bio-secure environment and the second half we played on a home and
away basis.
“This year around, we are starting off with a full round of home and away fixtures. We have doubled our fixtures, especially with the Division One Teams, and we will continue with that in Division Two as well.
“It’s a World Cup year. It’s the inaugural U19 Women’s World Cup set to be hosted in South Africa, followed by the Women’s T20 World Cup, so exciting times in the women’s space and the squads are looking good.
“They have been preparing now for the last two months and we can’t wait to see the players execute their skills on the field,” Weyers said. Although the performance and development of the players is paramount, Weyers stresses the
importance of a holistic approach to growth in the women’s game. “We want to focus on growing the game, and girl’s and women’s participation, not only from the player’s perspective, but also to focus on the growth of the base of match officials, scorers and umpires, and to provide more coaching opportunities for women within cricket.” he added.
As the country continues their preparation towards the two entrhalling T20 World Cups, SA U19 Women and National Academy head coach, Dinesha Devnarain and Momentum Proteas head coach Hilton Moreeng will be keeping a very close eye on their players and proceedings at domestic level.
Before the campaign kicks off, Coach Devnarain, the first South African woman to aquire a CSA Level. Four coaching qualification shared her thoughts: “I am really excited. We had a lot of preparation going into this season, so I am really looking
forward to it. I am excited for the U19s players because they have been identified and people are starting to notice of these names. “The High-Performance players know where they need to be, so now everything is in the player’s
court to perform. I am looking forward to seeing the growth in the players and see the process that we have worked on coming through in matches.
“I chatted to the (U19) girls and I said don’t look at this as a challenge, look at it as an opportunity to grow. You are playing with a lot of experience and you are definitely well above your age group but the skillsets remain the same.
“I am looking for their flair. I am looking for their expression of cricket to be played on the field. (There will be) lots of learnings and I am expecting a lot of phone calls after the game where we will touch on their processes, what worked and what didn’t go so well, so it’s really exciting,” she said.
Proteas Women head coach, Moreeng said: “Firstly, I just want to thank Gift (Mathe – CSA Coach Education Manager) and his team for a very successful coach’s conference. There are a lot of things that we discussed and on that, we are looking forward to see how we can implement some of the things we discussed strategically as a country going forward.
“It was very positive to hear from all the coaches and now we are looking forward to the season. “For us, it is just to see more of the performances we have been seeing over the last couple of years and we would like to see a lot of improvement on that because we know now that we have a lot of youngsters coming through and the U19s will be given opportunities at the domestic level.
“We are looking out for those performances. We are going into two World Cups, there’s always an opportunity for somebody to perform and you never know, anything is possible. We are looking for a competitive season and we can’t wait for it to start,” Coach Moreeng added.
All the action from the CSA Women’s Provincial One-Day Cup and the CSA Women’s Provincial T20 Cup will be streamed live on Pitch Vision beginning on Saturday, 24 September at 10h00 SAST.
Opening Weekend Fixtures:
CSA Women’s Provincial One-Day Cup (All matches start at 10h00 SAST)
Division One (Top 6) –
Saturday, 24 September: North West Dragons vs Hollywoodbets Dolphins (Witrand, Potchefstroom)
Saturday, 24 September: Fidelity Titans vs Six Gun Grill Western Province (TUT Oval, Tshwane)
Division Two (Pool A)
Saturday, 24 September: Free State vs Boland (CUT, Bloemfontein)
CSA Women’s Provincial T20 Cup Cup (All matches start at 10h00 SAST)
Sunday, 25 September: North West Dragons vs Hollywoodbets Dolphins (Witrand, Potchefstroom)
Sunday, 25 September: Fidelity Titans vs Six Gun Grill Western Province (TUT Oval, Tshwane)
Division Two (Pool A)
Saturday, 24 September: Free State vs Boland (CUT, Bloemfontein)
