South Africa's Dane Van Niekerk 'Broken' After T20 World Cup Snub

Advertisement

Sune Luus, who has taken over the reins of the Proteas Women's team in van Niekerk's absence, was named the captain for the T20 World Cup.

After the squad was announced, unsurprisingly the first question asked to Clinton du Preez, women's selection convener at the press conference was regarding the absence of van Niekerk.

"Dane was given an extensive opportunity to meet the minimum criteria or the fitness benchmark for eligibility into the World Cup. She recently did another fitness test and unfortunately did not meet the minimum criteria, and therefore she's missed out. It's purely based on the not meeting of the fitness criteria that she's missed out," Clinton du Preez said.

During the press conference, du Preez admitted that van Niekerk will be missed as a player but they had to go by the fitness requirements put in place by Cricket South Africa.

"Dane has been an integral part of the team. Her skill set will always be missed on the field. We've had this discussion with her. We've extensively reminded her of that, and appreciated the hard work that she's put in to try to get to the fitness levels," du Preez added.

"It's about remaining consistent with our decisions. Many other players have gone down this route. Everyone is quite familiar with the situation and what is required," he added.

South Africa's first game at the T20 World Cup comes up against Sri Lanka in Cape Town on February 10, while the Proteas also have group matches against New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh.