The Central Gauteng Lions (CGL) senior women’s team is set to become the first local provincial women’s side to hand its female athletes professional contracts.

The announcement was made at a press conference held at Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday, and the franchise said the historic agreement was made possible by logistics company Imperial coming in as a sponsor for the women’s team. This is after they took over the naming of the Wanderers stadium and also threw their weight behind the men’s team in 2019.

“The extended partnership reaffirms the commitment by both parties to not only create passion for cricket across all genders, equality but use the sport as a vehicle to drive social change and economic development,” commented Central Gauteng Lions CEO Jono Leaf-Wright.

“As the union, we are truly honoured for the extended partnership that will go towards the much needed women pipeline structures.”

CGL off-spinner Raisibe Ntozakhe said the deal was imperative for closing the gap between provincial cricket and international cricket.

“This will raise a huge bar. We do have quality now, but to bring something into it, it will create awareness that you can make a career out of it… It’ll create a huge opportunity to create more professional players and a lot of professionalism within the provincial structure, and not have a huge gap in terms of provincial cricket and the national team,” Ntozakhe told Daily Maverick. 

The 23-year-old, who also works as a cricket coach at Queens High School in Johannesburg, added that she would like for more schools to cater for girls who have an interest in cricket. This she said would help speed up the development of female cricketers in the country. 

“I’d like to see more girls’ schools allowing girls to play cricket. Because it’s not many schools that have a main focus on cricket, like Queens does. If that could happen, and also to have more younger players coming into school,” continued Ntozakhe.

“I’d love to have more upcoming players from under-13 and have a build up, and not just players who are under-16 and under-19. But rather have your under-13s and groom them into better cricketers, and more mature cricketers.”

Imperial said the partnership made sense for them, and will be an extension of their brand.

“At Imperial, our passion for the competitive and collective spirit sport embodies is matched by our passion for empowerment and diversity,” said Imperial Group CEO, Mohammed Akoojee. “This partnership aptly captures both of those passions and we are accordingly proud to be the part of the journey of these talented and inspiring women.”

The team will now be looking to improve on their third-place finish in the Covid-19 disrupted season. Their captain Yolani Fourie told the media that they were gunning for the number spot this time in the One Day International (ODI) provincial competition, which is set to start in January 2021. She added that they will be using the T20 competition to blood their youngsters. DM