The South Africa women’s national cricket team will be relishing the chance to make the most of the home advantage as they prepare for the start of the Women’s T20 World Cup, which kicks off on Friday.

In the first match, South Africa plays Sri Lanka at Newlands in Cape Town.

The hosts will try to do better than South Africa’s men’s team did at the 2003 World Cup and the 2006 Champions Trophy, which were the only two international men’s cricket tournaments held in South Africa.

South Africa also didn’t do well as hosts of the Women’s World Cup in 2005, where they came in seventh out of the eight teams.

At the time, there wasn’t much interest in women’s cricket, so there weren’t many people there and the media barely talked about it.

The 2023 event, on the other hand, will be more well-known because it will be advertised more and be shown live on TV.

The biggest news story in the lead-up has been the debate over why former captain Dane van Niekerk wasn’t picked because he wasn’t fit.

All-around player Sune Luus will continue to lead the team. She has been doing this since 2019 when Van Niekerk got hurt for the first time in a string of injuries.

“We are used to the conditions, we know what to expect from every ground we’re going to be playing on. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage,” said Luus.

Luus made a point of saying that Marizanne Kapp is one of the “standout” players on the team, and that her performance will be very important to South Africa’s chances.

Kapp was one of South Africa’s best players when they made it to the semi-finals of the 50-overs World Cup in Australia last year. He took 12 wickets and scored 203 runs at a strike rate of 92.

Kapp is married to Van Niekerk. After the World Cup team was announced, Kapp was given compassionate leave from a triangular tournament final against India so she could be with her wife.

South Africa won a low-scoring game even though Kapp wasn’t there, and Kapp is still committed to the World Cup campaign.

She has been very vocal, though, in her support of Van Niekerk.

“It is a massive setback for me, Dane and the team that she is not in the World Cup squad,” Kapp told the Rapport newspaper at the weekend, adding that Van Niekerk’s experience as a player and “magnificent leader” would be sorely missed.

South Africa is best at fast bowling, and Kapp, Shabnim Ismail, and Ayabonga Khaka make up a strong trio in this area.

Nonkululeko Mlaba is getting better at spinning the ball with his left arm, and Luus has started using her slow leg-spinners again after getting over a finger injury that kept her from bowling last year.

Laura Wolvaardt, Luus, Kapp, and Chloe Tryon, who has a big bat, are the best batters in a department that has been hurt by the absence of Van Niekerk and the retirements of Lizelle Lee, also because of fitness issues, and Mignon du Preez.

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