Following South Africa’s squad announcement for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, SportsBoom were able to sit down with captain Laura Wolvaardt, they have been kind enough to share this interview with us.
In this exclusive chat, Wolvaardt reveals how they plan to prepare for the tournament which has recently been relocated from Bangladesh due to political unrest.
Wolvaardt says ICC T20 World Cup Venue Change works in their favour. The team has been preparing for the tournament in Durban, captain Laura Wolvaardt who recently returned from The Hundred has expressed her views on teams preparations and the squad that was announced.
T20 World Cup Prep
The International Cricket Council announced in August that the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, set to be held in October, has been moved out of Bangladesh. The highly-anticipated ninth edition of the tournament will now take place in the United Arab Emirates with Bangladesh Cricket Board [BCB] continuing to host the event.
The International Cricket Council Chief Executive Geoff Allardice stated to the ICC, “I would like to thank the team at the BCB for exploring all avenues to try and enable the event to be hosted in Bangladesh, but travel advisories from the governments of a number of the participating teams meant that wasn’t feasible. However, they will retain hosting rights.”
Wolvaardt commented on the venue change and how this will impact preparations taking into account the stadium conditions. The tournament will take place across two venues in the UAE, Dubai and Sharjah.
“We were initially preparing for the full sub-continent [Bangladesh] conditions which is low and slow and now we are going back to something we are more comfortable with as a group, it works in our favour,” she told SportsBoom.com.
“All the prep has been good, obviously those of us at The Hundred played a lot of games, which is invaluable game time going into the T20 competition and the rest have been hard at work at a camp before this and now we are all together in Durban. Currently we are working on specifics but overall prep has been good.”
T20 World Cup Revised Fixtures
Due to the change in venues, the ICC have revised the fixture list as only two venues will be used. Instead of beginning their campaign with England, the Proteas Women’s side will meet the West Indies. South Africa are in group B together with tournament hosts Bangladesh, England, West Indies, and Scotland.
“To be honest, I haven’t really looked at the fixtures before but I turn my focus to it now. I don’t think the change impacts our group too much, we have to play all the teams anyway whether it be England first or the West Indies we still prepare the same and hopefully we can get off to a good start.”
Proteas Women Injury Crisis
The larger squad had injuries to two players, all-rounders Nadine de Klerk who has been announced in the squad and Delmi Tucker. Both are regular members of the squad. Wolwaardt was also asked whether there were possibilities in recruiting back the likes of Shabnim Ismail and Dane van Niekerk in the squad.
Wolwaardt answered, “At the moment it was just Delmi who has undergone surgery and will be out for a couple of months. Nadine has had an awesome rehab and returned to training, she is in camp starting to bowl and bat again.”
“It’s awesome to see how she has come along and worked hard to be back in the squad. Dane and Shubi [Shabnim] are world class players and have given so much for the team but I think the current focus is on the squad that is preparing for the World Cup.”
With thanks to SportsBoom
