Dané van Niekerk set to announce retirement from international cricket

Former South Africa skipper and all-rounder Dané van Niekerk, is set to announce her retirement from international cricket, as per reports. The scenario is not officially known to Cricket South Africa (CSA) as they plan to reveal the national women's contracts later this month. An official statement is yet to be released by the player and CSA on the former's retirement from international cricket.

Notably, the long-time regular skipper was dropped from the Proteas’ squad for the recently concluded T20 World Cup. She last featured in an international game against West Indies in an ODI match on September 19 in 2021.

Danevn81@Danevn811

What an era❤❤❤❤😊 twitter.com/kappie777/stat…

Marizanne Kapp@kappie777

End of an era.. 💔🥹

05:46 PM · Mar 11, 2023

37821

South Africa Women's premier all-rounder and wife of the former Proteas skipper, Marizanne Kapp, took to her official social media handle to pay tribute on her partner's retirement. Dané van Niekerk too retweeted the post and captioned- “What an era”. 

Dané van Niekerk failed to meet fitness standards prior to T20 World Cup 

The spin bowling all-rounder was largely confined to the sidelines owing to a broken ankle she endured in November 2021. However, upon her return, she failed to meet the national team’s fitness requirements and was dropped from the World Cup squad. The national team replaced her with Suné Luus, who captained the side to their maiden World Cup final. The fitness standards require South Africa’s female cricketers to run 2-kilometres in 9 minutes and 30 seconds, in which, van Niekerk fell short of the cut-off time by 18 seconds.

Later, she served as a commentator during the marquee event and is now a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad in the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL). The Bangalore-based franchise acquired her services for her base price of INR 30 lakhs at the auction held in December.

Van Niekerk played 107 ODIs for South Africa, aggregating 2175 runs and racking up 138 wickets. She featured in 86 T20I games, amassing 1877 runs at a strike rate of 94.94 and collecting 65 wickets at an economy of 5.45. She played her only Test against India in 2014 in Mysore, in which she picked up a solitary wicket.