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After retiring from the sport in 2023 at the age of 29, former South African captain Dané Van Niekerk has officially revoked her decision and announced her return to cricket. The 32-year-old, who had been excluded from a home T20 World Cup squad due to fitness requirements, is now making a determined comeback.
Van Niekerk has already returned to domestic cricket for Western Province and has been included in a 20-member extended training group for the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 in India. In a sincere gesture, Van Niekerk also penned an apology to Cricket South Africa for her handling of the retirement, signaling a clear intention to move forward and contribute to the national team’s success.
Dané Van Niekerk discloses what made her return from international retirement
After a two-year hiatus from the international stage, Van Niekerk candidly expressed that the time away had made her realize how deeply she missed the game. The desire to represent her country was reignited, and a personal tragedy provided a renewed purpose for her comeback. In a heartfelt statement, she shared the motivation that brought her back into the fold, willing to give everything to earn her spot back.
“Yeah look it’s been two years and out of the game, I just realised how much I miss it. Seeing the success of the team, obviously besides everything it makes you proud and you wanna be part of that and I think that’s kind of the main reason. Recently I went through something traumatic in my family, my dad passed away, it’s almost as if something like that gave me the new ‘why’. It’s a very strong ‘why’ for me. It wasn’t easy, there was a lot of conversations that was heard but I just think now is the right time, I think my ‘why’ is the most important thing and I wanna get back contributing to this environment,” Van Niekerk was quoted as saying by the Sabcsport.com.
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Van Niekerk’s expresses gratitude for the opportunity
Van Niekerk’s return was made possible by the receptive stance of Cricket South Africa, allowing her to put past issues behind her. The former captain had a less than amicable departure from the sport after failing to meet the fitness standards two years ago, but she now holds a firm belief that all parties are aligned on a single, unifying goal.
“At the end of the day everybody wants the same thing and that’s to win a World Cup. We want South Africa to lift as many trophies as possible and wherever anybody can contribute. Again, just the willingness of CSA and obviously with the coach and management and all those things. It made it quite easy because of how receptive they were and I mean that comes with a lot of gratitude. As I said, not kind of knowing what to expect but as I said, even the chats with Enoch [Nkwe], it was just nice. The nice thing is we can all move forward, whatever happened, happened and we can just move forward and try to build a stronger environment,” Van Niekerk concluded.
Also READ: 3 reasons why South Africa should include Dané van Niekerk in the 2025 Women’s World Cup squad
This article was first published at WomenCricket.com, a Cricket Times company.
