Wits University finally has their own ladies cricket team.
In a historic move, the Wits Cricket club launched a female cricket team on Wednesday, August 14 but only one player attended the first practice session at the Wits Bozzoli Sports Pavilion the day after the launch.
“I was disheartened at the practice turnout. I hope that more players join soon,” said Zeenat Laher, first-year audiology student who was the only player to show for practice.
A second attempt was held on Friday, August 15, when 12 women participated, enough to make up a full cricket team.
Wits cricket manager, Sharmin Naidoo, told Wits Vuvuzela that Cricket South Africa recently started contracting ladies to play cricket and Wits cricket followed suit with the creation of a team that is open to students from any institution.
“It was always my goal to start a ladies cricket team, I gave myself a year to get a ladies program going with cricket,” said Naidoo.
“We are the first university in the province to start a ladies team which is fantastic and we are hoping that it is going be a successful program”, he said.
Rosebank College student Thandolwethu Shongwe, one of the new players, told Wits Vuvuzela, she had played cricket in high school.
“I really like this sport and I hope this newly launched cricket team works out because the number of people pitching up for practice is not that many and I just hope people get serious about”, said Shongwe.
Assistant coach of the women’s cricket team, Bathabo Isaacs said that the women are still in the early stages of playing the game.
“There’s still a lot to learn from the basics and everything but there’s hope because some of the ladies know how to play,” said Isaacs.
Another one of the players, first-year mining engineering student, Rethabile Tsebiso said from a young age she was interested in cricket.
“The launch of the ladies cricket team [is] an opportunity that came through and I was like I think it’s my time now and I’m excited,” said Tsebiso
Naidoo told Wits Vuvuzela, “The last three practices including this one has been around 10-12 girls. So I want to get that number to around 20 girls hopefully mostly Wits university students although we have opened the club up to students from other campuses.”
Women cricket practice will take place every Tuesday and Thursday at 16:30 at Bozzoli Sports Pavilion.
FEATURED IMAGE: Wits ladies cricket team practice their bowling at the Bozzoli Sports Pavilion. Photo: Lwandile Shange.
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