Inexperienced Proteas Women will be put to the test at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein

Proteas Women coach Mandla Mashimbyi. (Photo: Gallo Images)

15 Dec 2024

The team’s second Test match this year will be the first time since 1972 that they’ve played more than one Test match in the same year.

The Proteas Women are preparing for their first Test match at home in 22 years when they take on England starting on 15 December.

The historic match at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein will be the first time the country hosts a women’s match since India visited South Africa’s shores and beat the hosts by 10 wickets in 2002.

Since then, a lot has changed in women’s cricket locally. The Proteas Women are fully professional and have been since 2013.

There is no women’s team on the continent, in all sports, with a better-funded and -resourced sports side, and although the results are showing – with them having achieved back-to-back T20 World Cup final appearances – they’re still lagging behind in the longest format.

South Africa’s domestic women’s cricket has been professionalised, but it has not yet reached a point where long-form red ball cricket has been introduced.

The six provincial sides compete against one another in 50-over and T20 tournaments, which run simultaneously.

If wicketkeeper Mieke de Ridder is selected for the Test match against England, it will be the first professional red ball match she would have played in her career.

How will newly appointed head coach Mandla Mashimbyi, who has been at the helm for two weeks, deal with that challenge?

“In training we’ll try to emulate [Test conditions],” Mashimbyi told Daily Maverick. “Try to keep them on their feet for as long as possible so they can understand that they will spend more time on the field.

“If you want to win [a Test match], you need to be prepared to win it on the last session of the last day.

“In terms of preparing them it’s just about making them understand what’s needed. They will need to be a lot more patient and understand that time is our friend, so there’s no need for us to panic or go looking for things. It’s about how long we can stick to our game plans and stay consistent and disciplined in doing so.”

Proteas Women coach Mandla Mashimbyi. (Photo: Gallo Images)

Sporadic matches

South Africa, understandably, have struggled in Test cricket, given how few and far between their matches have been.

In the 15 Test matches the Proteas Women have played since 1960 (not that they were called that back then), they have only registered one victory, which came against the Netherlands in 2007, when they won by 159 runs.

Shabnim Ismail is the only current active cricketer among the 22 players to have played those four days of cricket in Rotterdam, having made her international debut that year as a 19 year old.

Ismail went on to become the greatest women’s fast bowler the country has seen, and one of the best in the world.

Of course, that sole Test match, the only one she played in her career, didn’t have a major impact on it.

Mashimbyi, though, believes the format is integral for players to develop and grow their games. “Red ball [cricket] is something that I value,” he said.

“It’s something I feel the girls need to take as an important tool to grow their game and understand their own game.

“It’s only red ball cricket that can do that for you, because you are tested emotionally, physically and also mentally.

“The only way to learn what cricket is all about is by playing red ball cricket…”

The challenge is that the most experienced players in the current squad have three Test caps to their name, with more than half the current side having debuted in England in 2022.

For real progress and growth to take place, in the aspects Mashimbyi envisions, the players need to learn those tough lessons at provincial level.

According to the coach, there are plans for red ball matches to take place at the rung below international, but they are still at the preliminary stage.

“I have my ideas as to what to put in place from a red ball point of view, but we’re still engaging with the important people regarding this decision,” he said.

Taking heed

On paper, the meeting of Mashimbyi and an upward-moving Proteas side seems like a match made in heaven. The former fast-bowling all-rounder has had a successful tenure as head coach of the Titans men’s team, winning domestic four-day and T20 competition titles and consistently being among the best teams in the country.

The Proteas Women need no help being among the best – they need someone to help them win when they get to the top.

“The potential to get to the finals again and … winning it,” Mashimbyi said about what made the job so attractive for him.

“The team has done well, so it’s a matter of me getting that extra 10% to get us over the line.

“We have a lot of talented cricketers with a lot of potential. There’s a lot of young talent coming through, so everything is looking good in terms of continuity in the system.”

Mashimbyi has also consulted with the two men who led the Proteas Women to back-to-back T20 finals, Hilton Moreeng and Dillon du Preez – the latter is still on board as bowling coach – to learn about what makes the team tick.

The shortest format is evidently one that the team has a strong hold on. The next challenge is to replicate those performances in Test cricket, which Mashimbyi believes will roll over to the 50-over format.

The Proteas Women are steadily increasing the number of Test matches they play, and this one is the third since 2022.

The next Future Tours Programme cycle sees the team play five Test matches between 2025 and 2029 – the most number of matches they will have played in a five-year period. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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South Africa

Sporadic matches

Taking heed