Ahead of their national camp, four members of the Protea Women’s squad were put through their paces by the team’s strength and condition coach in the nets at the picturesque UWC Cricket Oval for four hours last week.

Former UWC student and cricketer Zane Webster organised the training exercise at his alma mater, knowing that the facilities were some of the best in the province outside those of the two large cricket unions, Western Province and Boland.

Fresh from the recently concluded Women’s IPL, medium pace bowler Nadine de Klerk was in the nets, delivering the sort of balls that earned her a spot with the Mumbai Indians who are the reigning champions although, she had no part in the finals. 

Part of the small contingent was Suné Luus, Delmi Tucker and Proteas team captain Laura Wolvaardt.

Wolvaardt, a former pupil of Parklands College, said the choice of UWC’s Cricket Oval was quite easy considering Webster’s links to the University, and the cricket club.

“It’s kind of difficult finding turf in Cape Town, especially at this time of year. I don’t play for Western Province so Newlands (Cricket Stadium) is always difficult to get, and Zain, our S&C used to study here, so he’s got some connections and got a turf lane for us to train on,” said Wolvaardt.

Because the University was closed for recess, very few students and staff who were on campus realised that some of the world’s best women’s cricketers were training at UWC.

“We needed to get outside and train a bit for the (Proteas) camp so that we can hit the ground running. We’ve got the (women’s) World Cup in October and November so we’ve just got to play ODI cricket, so they’ve kind of squashed a tour in, in Sri Lanka right at the end of our season,” said Wolvaardt.