By Razeen Gutta
Proteas women’s cricket team captain Dané van Niekerk once said: “A season does not define a decade of consistent performances.”
Unfortunately, Cricket South Africa disagrees.
Having missed out on international cricket for over a year due to injury, Van Niekerk has been left out of the squad for South Africa’s home World Cup — despite now being fit to play.
Cricket South Africa have faced massive social media backlash, as selectors reportedly dropped Van Niekerk for missing the required target of 9 minutes 30 seconds in a two kilometre running test.
ESPN CricInfo have reported that she completed the test in 9 minutes 48 seconds, her personal best. However, stringent new tests meant that was not enough to make the cut.
Van Niekerk is arguably South Africa’s best short format cricketer; and the only one to reach 1,500 runs and take over 50 wickets in T20Is.
Her spouse and teammate Marizanne Kapp took to Twitter to show her support for Van Niekerk, who posted a picture captioned “absolutely broken” on Instagram following the news.
“One of the best captains in world cricket,” Kapp wrote.
“You will be missed! The Lord has bigger plans,” she added in Afrikaans.
Suné Luus will captain the Proteas at the World Cup.
Pictured above: Dane van Niekerk
Image source: @danevanniekerk
