NO less than five women from the Garden Route Badgers cricket team, based in Oudtshoorn, were recently chosen by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to be included Women’s National Academy squad for 2023!
Jané Winster, Mieke de Ridder, Micaela Andrews, Annerie Dercksen and Asakhe Nyovane were named by CSA in a squad of 16 women who will attend the National Academy which is run annually and forms an important part of the CSA High-Performance pipeline. Winster, Andrews and De Ridder all play for local club, Union Stars.
The Academy prepares players for professional cricket at the highest level. Players are selected in line with stringent performance criteria, including performing provincial players and previous graduates of the SA Under-19 team.
The women’s programme will run from 1 June to the end of July this year, hosted at the CSA Centre of Excellence (COE). In addition to the training camp, individual intervention coaching and monitoring visits are conducted at provincial level.
The women’s team will be under the guidance of Dinesha Devnarain, and includes SA U19 Women’s graduates and World Cup stars like Oluhle Siyo, Jenna Evans, Ayanda Hlubi, and Refilwe Moncho.
The rest of the 2023 squad is:
Andrie Steyn (Six Gun Grill Western Province), Nondumiso Shangase (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Nobulumko Baneti (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Raisibe Ntozakhe (DP World Lions), Tebogo Macheke (Fidelity Titans), Leah Jones (Six Gun Grill Western Province), Oluhle Siyo (DP World Lions), Jenna Evans (DP World Lions), Eliz Mari Marx (Fidelity Titans), Ayanda Hlubi (Hollywoodbets Dolphins), Refilwe Moncho (DP World Lions).