South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt plays a shot during the final T20 women's World Cup cricket match against Australia at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt plays a shot during the final T20 women's World Cup cricket match against Australia at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town. Photo: Marco Longari/AFP
Moving the women’s T20 World Cup to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Bangladesh, will benefit the Proteas women’s team according to skipper Laura Wolvaardt.
The star opener explained that the pitches they would likely encounter in the UAE would be much harder and faster than those on the sub-continent in Bangladesh.
The tournament beginning next month, was moved by the International Cricket Council (ICC) due to political unrest in Bangladesh.
The International Cricket Council Chief Executive Geoff Allardice told 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."
ICC WOMEN’S T20 WORLD CUP SQUAD
— Proteas Women (@ProteasWomenCSA) September 3, 2024
Congratulations to the following players who have been named in the @proteaswomencsa squad for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup taking place in the UAE from 3 to 20 October 2024.
Laura Wolvaardt (Captain)
Anneke Bosch
Tazmin Brits
Nadine de… pic.twitter.com/WREoiIeQS3
While stopping short of licking her lips at the prospect of batting on the UAE pitches, Wolvaardt explained what the change would mean to her charges.
"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.”
Meanwhile, the Proteas women announced their T20 World Cup squad on Wednesday, and there were no major surprises.
Proteas Women’s squad: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Annerie Dercksen, Mieke de Ridder, Ayanda Hlubi, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Suné Luus, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Seshnie Naidu, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloe Tryon.