The World Cup captain sensationally dropped for being 18 seconds too slow in a 2km training run

lizelle lee retired some months ago and she was certainly fat and wouldn't have made that mark, and she is playing the T20 circuit so its only and international retirement. So South Africa losing to Sri Lanka they sabotaged themselves with this stupidity.

There is no way Mark Taylor could have done that when he came into the test team. You underestimate Boon he always got a decent figure on the beep test. Shane Warne was a lot fitter than Taylor ever was. What about Inzumman Ul Haq he was the unfittest I have seen.

Yes, but we are not talking about park runners, we are discussing cricketers. Could your average park runner play 107 tests for Australia like David Boon, or captain the Australian test team like Tubby Taylor? How about taking 708 wickets like Shane Warne? None of these players were great park runners or elite athletes, but they were all outstanding cricketers. When you think about the attributes that make a great batter or champion spin bowler, the ability to run 2km under 9min 30sec doesn’t matter much. No wonder SA cricket is in such a mess.

you missed it all. who gives a flying freddo frog what you think of women' cricket anyway? and the way you talk about mental health. and relationships. just enjoy watching your team get pantsed. again. or stay out of it. i don't care what SA do. i was responding to Naughty's cheap and uninformed potting.

Let me try and clear this in my own mind. ...She failed a fitness test ....A precondition for selection ..yes ? No? ..Whether through fitness or rather lack thereof , injury , illness is totally irrelevant . ..She knew about this criteria beforehand ..Yes ? No? .. Then she has a mental breakdown of sorts due to said non selection ..Am I still on track ? Then her wife a current team member is granted compassionate leave to support her .... Am I missing anything yet ? ....So I repeat that when I watch this all unfolding please forgive my lack of compassion but I cannot take female cricket seriously at least not until it takes itself seriously . If you want to run the Comrades Ultra Marathon ( Men or Women ) you are required to first complete a Standard Marathon within a certain time . Miss it by just one second and bad luck. No entry . Try to do better next time ..Everyone accepts that ..And those are not paid professional athletes .

that is being serious. Van Niekerk has spoken openly about the mental health struggles she faces when on the sidelines. her wife wants to support her for a few days. it's a smart move, Kapp will be ferocious when she returns.

you do realise that she ran her PB? has dropped 10kg? is fitter and faster than she has ever been for any of her 194 games for SA? has done this despite getting older and having repeat injuries which have constantly affected her aerobic fitness? including an ankle she couldn't walk on for 5 months last year? and notwithstanding Kate Cross' suggestion that women athletes lose fitness much more quickly than men due to biological differences? yeah i knew you knew all that. thanks SA, the rest of the world thanks you.

go you

2 years ago she was doing some running? Should have kept that up, she might have met the minimum fitness requirements.

Meantime fellow Proteas women player Marizanne Kapp who also happens to be Dane Van Niekerks wife has been placed on compassionate leave due to the stress of her partner being dropped from the team for fitness reasons ..! I couldn't invent this ..Professionalism ??? Think there is a long , long way to go. And women's cricket want to be taken seriously ? Seriously !

Off a broken ankle though? Depends on how long ago she broke the ankle I guess.

She’s coming off 4 or 5 injuries in the last 3 years. She oozes professionalism. She had done a quad in England before she came to the Sixers a couple of years back. After they disposed of the Thunder out at Drummoyne, the Sixers were off celebrating. There were 4 people left at the ground - my daughter and I talking to Kapp, while she gave moral support to Van Niekerk who was running repetitions to get the miles into her legs, well into the late night. Van Niekerk is South Africa’s spiritual leader. A great tactical leader - a Benaud type. A fine leggie, a great catcher and an absolute marvel with the bat when on. It’s T20. She would have to chase a few balls. Bowl 3-4 overs in 1 over spells. Face 20-30 balls/ run a few singles Sth Africa have just done everyone else a favour. Sune Luus is a fine cricketer but she is no Van Niekerk. —- Of course I am sure that most of the female players would like to be more professional. I still can’t work out whether you were trying to be ironic.

Oh well. Maybe in the future she'll be more professional. It's about time some of these women's teams got some professionalism about them.

Mark Taylor is lucky he's long retired. Boonie too.

Yeah, it's not like they're setting elite standards to meet. Any half decent parkrunner can run 4:45/km, let alone a supposedly elite athlete.

And you retreat from reality. News flash !! South African Cricket is a mess. Yes it is . And its in no small part to apologists like you. I repeat , Ngidi is out of shape , a shadow of the player he was and he frankly is fat and unfit. Why are you defending that ?

So you retreat from no targets to low targets. Lying again so come back after researching and reveal the target number that you say is low.

Ah my conscience reappears . ..OK I take it back ..Ngidi looked fit , ripped and up for the challenge .. My bad …Apologies to KFC too. It really is a balanced diet . And his loss of pace from above 140kph to 130kph or less clearly must be through aging . I mean the poor thing is 26 years old . So yes again I’m obviously lying and sincerely apologise . Anything else ? Actually there is . If Ngidi met fitness criteria then as stated here by another poster ……The bar is very , very low.

All teams have fitness targets for men and woman, so you are telling lies.

Clearly the men's team don't have the same fitness criteria as the women. Its a pity as we would not have to endure the embarrassing performances of an overweight , out of condition Lungi Ngidi.