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South Africa’s long-time women’s cricket captain Dane van Niekerk has been left out of South Africa’s upcoming T20 World Cup team after failing to meet the fitness criteria.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the team were required to complete a 2km run in nine minutes and 30 seconds as part of the checklist. Returning from a stint on the sideline suffering from a broken ankle, van Niekerk crossed the line 18 seconds over and ending her dream of captaining the host nation.
“Dané was given an extensive opportunity to meet the minimum criteria or the fitness benchmark for eligibility into the World Cup,” said women’s selection convener Clinton du Preez.
“She recently did another fitness test and unfortunately did not meet the minimum criteria, and therefore she’s missed out. It’s purely based on the not meeting of the fitness criteria that she’s missed out.”
Van Niekerk took to social media to express her disappointment with the decision, with a simple tweet saying: ‘Absolutely BROKEN.’
Teammate and wife Marizanne Kapp also shared her disappointment on Twitter.
Over the past two years, South Africa has increased the required fitness standards, and while du Preez will be having the talented all-rounder in the team, he agreed with the decision made on van Niekerk.
“Dané has been an integral part of the team. Her skill-set will always be missed on the field. We’ve had this discussion with her. We’ve extensively reminded her of that, and appreciated the hard work that she’s put in to try to get to the fitness levels,” he said.
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“It’s about remaining consistent with our decisions. Many other players have gone down this route. Everyone is quite familiar with the situation and what is required.”
AAP’s Scott Bailey also weighed in on the decision, along with BBC commentator Alison Mitchell.
Sune Luus will now captain South Africa in the tournament, with the host nation to begin their Group A campaign against Sri Lanka in Cape Town on February 10. Australia is also in Group A for the World Cup, along with New Zealand and Bangladesh.
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