Proteas women’s wicket-keeper batter Karabo Meso, 17, praised Proteas fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Kwena Maphaka for providing her with guidance as she juggles international cricket and matric.
Guidance from Rabada
Consistently, South Africa’s cricketing pipeline produces young prodigies who break into the senior national teams, men, and women, in their teens.
A little over a decade ago, a young Kagiso Rabada donned the green and gold of the senior Proteas men’s team as a 19-year-old against Australia in Adelaide.
A decade later, Kwena Maphaka’s raw pace saw him become the youngest Proteas men’s player when he earned his maiden international cap in the Caribbean last year.
In 2023, Karabo Meso broke down the Proteas women’s selection door, earning her maiden international cap in Potchefstroom at a tender age of 16.
Although these outliers always send the country into a frenzy of excitement, they tend to have quite the opposite effect on the young prodigies.
The pressure of expectations can weigh the young players down to an extent that they seldom reach their true potential.
In an exclusive interview with SportsBoom, the now 17-year-old Karabo Meso opened up about her first year playing international cricket.
The 17-year-old highlighted how Rabada and Maphaka, who were in her shoes as teenage international players, provided her with guidance with the intention of assisting her in managing the demands of international cricket while simultaneously putting the necessary work into her studies.
“I really don’t feel pressure because I think we have a great system. I understand that there are people outside of cricket who have a lot of expectations to us youngsters and us youngsters, and we just want to live up to them, which is wrong,” Meso told SportsBoom.co.za.
“I think me having a mentor, someone like KG (Rabada) that I speak to, someone like our head coach Mandla (Mashimbyi) and the team players who’ve been there for so long, I think having them and having a conversation, it doesn’t mean it has to be cricket or whatever.”
“You just need to release whatever you’re thinking because obviously you can’t play cricket while you’re thinking so much, and you have a lot of problems. I think that’s a big thing for us youngsters. You playing for the actual team, like the first team, like the Proteas, doesn’t mean that you have to do this and do that.”
“Myself, KG and Kwena (Maphaka) were recently in a call together, and we were talking about managing my school and cricket. Because Kwena was in the same situation.”
“So we were on the call, we were talking about cricket, and then he asked me about how everything is, and I told him, and he was like to me, you know, he relates the same thing because he also started playing for the Proteas at a young age.”
“The only difference is that he didn’t have a chance to get help whenever he needed help. I think he told me that I must just take every day as it comes. Like if today is today, I must live in the now and not think about what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week.”
“With Kwena, he’s one year older than me, so we’re like the same age. Whenever we see each other, it’s like, hey, how are you doing? We just check up on each other. Whenever something great happens to him, I text him and am like, Congrats and all that.”
“I feel like we would have a great conversation if we sat in the same room. But we haven’t had that yet. I don’t know why. Because he’s also travelling and all that. If you sit down and I see myself in him, probably he sees himself in me. Because we’re in a similar situation.”
Role in the Proteas women’s team
Meso told SportsBoom.co.za that she now has a clearer understanding of the role that Proteas women’s coach Mandla Mashimbyi envisions for her.
“My role is defined compared to when I started at the age of 16, my first series against Sri Lanka. Yes, I could see that I was making a debut for the Proteas Women’s, but I didn’t know what my role was, what am I doing here?” she said.
“Yes, I’m getting a cap, and I’m really grateful that I’m getting my cap, and it was a dream come true. But the more I play at the highest level, I’m seeing the purpose of playing cricket and why I’m doing this and getting more experience.”
With thanks to SportsBoom
