Dané van Niekerk plays a shot during the ICC Women’s World Cup match between South Africa and India at Grace Road cricket ground in Leicester, England, on 8 July 2017. (Photo: ICC) 
Less than a month after the Proteas Women became the first South African side to reach the final of a major International Cricket Council tournament in 2023 – the T20 World Cup at home – their most recent long-term captain, Dané van Niekerk, announced her retirement.
She was only 29 at the time and should have been at the peak of her powers. Instead, she felt let down by the system after being left out of the T20 World Cup squad because she failed fitness tests.
Two-and-a-half years later, Van Niekerk will be back in green and gold after rescinding her retirement and being selected as part of head coach Mandla Mashimbyi’s T20 and one-day international (ODI) cohort to take on Ireland.
“When Clinton [du Preez], the convenor of selectors, called me, he said I made both sides and I just cried,” Van Niekerk told Daily Maverick. “I was fortunate enough to be with my mom and [family] so I could tell them the news as well. It was just overwhelming. If you had asked me even six months ago if I thought that I’d be in the South African team, I would have laughed at you.”
Van Niekerk had struggled with injuries throughout 2022 and when she finally recovered, she failed to complete the required fitness test: a 2km time trial in nine minutes and 30 seconds. Those time trials and strict fitness parameters have gone out the window since Mashimbyi’s appointment as coach. Instead, he has said he selects cricketers who are good at the sport.
“For me, you have to look like a cricketer, move like a cricketer and think like a cricketer,” Mashimbyi said. “If you are able to do that, I am happy. As long as she can bat, move in the field and think, we are good, and from what I have seen, she can do that.”
Inspired return
Van Niekerk and Mashimbyi have been in communication since the start of the year about preparing for her return to the national side. The former captain had even made a national team camp just before last month’s Women’s Cricket World Cup.
But her entrance back into the fray was delayed after her father passed away in May this year and she decided to spend a month away from the sport to mourn. And instead of walking away from the game permanently again, she came back to it even more determined to play for the Proteas, following her father’s dying wish.
“When my dad passed, that was his wish,” she explained. “That was his last voice note to me that I still have on my phone. ‘The comeback ball of all time.’ Those were his words to me and that stuck with me for a while. Speaking to Mandla [Mashimbyi], the hunger grew and grew, and I was like, it’s now or never. I’m 32. It’s now or never.”
The other reason she wanted to return was because her prior exit wasn’t on the terms she wanted it to be and she felt that she hadn’t left it all on the field yet. “I missed the game,” Van Niekerk explained. “I loved commentating [which she did before returning], but I wasn’t part and parcel of the game. I had so much more to give, still.”
But although she didn’t lose her passion for cricket, she did lose a valuable part of it: her confidence in her leg-spin bowling. Van Niekerk has been in terrific form with the bat for Western Province, but she hasn’t picked up the ball since her return to the sport domestically last season. She remains the third-highest wicket taker for South Africa in T20Is and the fourth-highest in ODIs.
But at the moment, she has the “yips”. “That’s a bit of a heartsore for me,” she said about the fact that she’s not bowling at the moment.
“Leg spin is the hardest art in cricket. That’s a fact. Anybody can fight me on that. You need confidence to execute it and in 2023 I lost everything, every ounce of confidence I had. I got the yips; I still have it. In the last two years, I haven’t stopped bowling. But there’s just no confidence at the moment to execute it in the game.”
Support system
While she was out of the game, Van Niekerk had the best seat in the house watching South Africa’s success. After the T20 World Cup at home in 2023, they reached the final of the same tournament in 2024 in the United Arab Emirates and last month, for the first time in history, the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
Her wife, Marizanne Kapp, has been an integral part of the Proteas side and Van Niekerk has been the biggest supporter at those tournaments. But at home, it was Kapp who helped Van Niekerk back onto her feet and lace up her spikes again.
“She never gave up,” Van Niekerk said about the support Kapp gave her. “Even the day I decided to retire, she never gave up. She said to me, ‘You’ll be back.’
“For two years, she’s been hammering me. We’ve had fights because I said I’m not coming back. I’m done. She kept the faith. She gave me so much nonsense when I didn’t train. Even if I wasn’t playing, she still tried to get me to train, tried to keep me as fit as I could be. I was very despondent. I was very angry, but she kept the faith.
“When I said to her I’m coming back, that’s when she got worse because then there were no off days, but I’m very grateful to her. If it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t have been in this situation.”
Van Niekerk’s experience, leadership and ability will be an asset to a team on the rise. Although she’s expected to make her biggest impact with the bat, she’s still hopeful that her homecoming will be the comeback ball of all time. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
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