South Africa women will host Australia for three ODIs and as many T20Is in March-April 2020, soon after the completion of the T20 World Cup. The ODIs will be part of the ICC Women’s Championship that aims to identify seven direct qualifiers for the 2021 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
The fixtures unveiled on Thursday also included an itinerary for the emerging teams’ tournament, in which South Africa will first host Bangladesh in three one-dayers and three T20s from July 23 to August 4.
South Africa have rewarded their best performers from the women’s academy with berths in the emerging team, with the aim to build on their gains from last year’s Emerging Tri-series against England Women’s Academy and Australia’s Shooting Stars.
“We are very excited to announce these two home tours, with more quality women’s cricket being played on home soil, said Vincent Barnes, CSA’s High Performance manager. “We’ve seen some thrilling performances recently from our national team and the Australia tour will be another opportunity for them to impress in South African conditions against elite opposition.”
The exposure to an emerging tour is valuable as South Africa, semi-finalists at the 2017 World Cup, look to expand their talent pool in the country by tapping the grassroots. With the ICC indicating the possibility of staging an age-group World Cup for women soon, South Africa’s step towards increasing their exposure to competitive cricket will be seen as a welcome development.
“There’s a lot of cricket coming up for the Women’s team over the next two years, with the T20 World Cup next year and the Women’s World Cup in 2021, so it is important to ensure the development pipeline continues to produce and that is where the National Academy and the emerging side will prove to be pivotal.
“We have seen the likes of Nondumiso Shangase, Faye Tunnecliffe and Sinalo Jafta make their breakthroughs from the programme, going on to earn their national colours, so that is promising for the future.”
South Africa’s Emerging Team squad: Tazmin Brits, Faye Tunnicliffe, Lara Goodall, Saarah Smith, Robyn Searle, Tumi Sekhukhune, Zintle Mali, Nonkululeko Thabethe, Jade de Figuerido, Nadia Mbokotwana, Nondumiso Shangase, Evodia Yekile, Nadine de Klerk.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo