While a number of her teammates have hung up their spikes recently, Proteas women’s stalwart Marizanne Kapp plans to keep playing for her country as long as she keeps delivering the goods.
Players like fast bowler Shabnim Ismail have said goodbye to the Proteas, but Kapp at 34 believes she’s playing some of the best cricket of her career.
The loss of Ismail in particular left a gaping hole in the Proteas attack, as the pacer was one of the fastest bowlers in the women’s game.
It’s meant that allrounder Kapp will be required to help fill that gap going forward with the ball, despite having lower back issues recently which have limited her time in the bowling attack.
Our WBBL Player of the year Marizanne Kapp has nominated for the #WBBLDraft! 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦
— Perth Scorchers (@ScorchersBBL) August 24, 2023
We can watch her clean up wickets all day! 🔥#WBBL09 #MADETOUGH pic.twitter.com/NEhz3paGHa
‘Playing my best cricket’
"I've actually been feeling really good. Yes, I know I'm 34 years old, but I feel like I'm playing my best cricket at the moment and I'm learning something new about myself every single game I'm stepping out on the park to play,” Kapp told SportsBoom.com in an exclusive interview.
“I'm enjoying my cricket and I've always been someone that looks after my body from a very young age. So, even though I'm 34 on paper, I feel like I've got a few more years in me. As long as I'm contributing and performing, I will play for as long as possible,” she added.
Since the Proteas reached their first-ever T20 World Cup final last year on home soil, the retirement of experienced players like Lizelle Lee and Dane van Niekerk over the last few years have started taking an effect on the team.
Since the T20 World Cup, the Proteas have lost six T20I series as the results have dropped substantially.
"The players that retired left a massive hole in the team and it's going to take quite a while to try and fill their boots,” said Kapp.
“I mean, it wasn't your everyday players that retired. It was big names, people that played very important roles, so it will definitely take time for us to be at our best again.
“There's definitely places up for grabs within the South African team and now we just have to give some of the youngsters a chance as well,” she added.
The 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup has been moved from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates due to the political unrests in Bangladesh, and will run from October 3 to 23.