SOCCER: Banyana stalwart Jermaine Seoposenwe tells us about her exploits at Braga in Portugal

Jermaine Seoposenwe in action during the 2020 Olympics Qualifier 2nd Leg match between South Africa and Botswana. Photo: BackpagePix

Seoposenwe a bedrock for Banyana

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MINENHLE MKHIZE

MITCHELLS Plain is renowned for producing top sporting talent and Banyana Banyana star Jermaine Seoposenwe falls into that category. Over the years, Mitchells Plain has blessed South Africa with stars such as Moeneeb Josephs, Nasief Morris, Ricardo Katza, Devon Petersen and Nizaam Carr. Seoposenwe rose to prominence in 2010 at the Under-17 World Cup. She introduced herself in style in Trinidad and Tobago. She scored SA’s two goals at the tournament and suddenly everyone started to take note of the then 16-year-old from Cape Town. After the World Cup, Seoposenwe was named SA’s Young Women’s Player of the Year. Two years later she missed out on the London Olympics because of injury. She bounced back and helped Banyana qualify for the Rio Games, and she was a star at the World Cup in France last year. Now 26, Seoposenwe is one of the cogs in the Banyana team and has formed a potent attacking partnership alongside Thembi Kgatlana and Refiloe Jane. Her international experience in the United States, Lithuania, Spain and Portugal has made her a national asset.

Master blaster

For the Proteas’ powerhouse opener it’s all about ‘see ball hit ball’

STUART HESS

A couple of years ago Colin Ingram uploaded a video of himself hammering a truck tyre with a massive mallett onto Twitter. It was a demonstration of one of his training methods for “power hitting.” “I saw that,” said Lizelle Lee, her voice trailing off. Lee doesn’t train that way – yet, but there was a look of interest as she rolled it over in her head. For now, much like her batting, her training methods are simple. “We just have someone throwing balls to us in the middle and we try and hit it as far as possible,” added Lee. She hits the ball further than most – regardless of gender. “I try, when we do our power hitting (exercises) in the middle, I try and (hit the ball as far as possible). “I love it. It comes naturally, sometimes I don’t think about a shot, I just play. It’s natural – like you know you need to press your clutch to change gears – it just happens, you don’t think about it, it comes naturally. “You can ask a lot of my teammates and they will tell you my style is all about ‘see ball, hit ball.’”

Lizelle Lee in action during a WT20 World Cup warm-up match between Australia and the Proteas at Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide. Photo: EPA

That style has served Lee well and provided her with financial stability too, thanks to contracts in Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League and England’s Super League. When she started studying at North West University eight years ago, teaching and trying to earn a national hockey cap were her priorities.

She tried cricket for fun, didn’t like it that she couldn’t keep the ball on the ground when batting, gave it up and then restarted again and with some minor technical adjustments started making a success out of it. Lee is sticking to the simple mantra of “see ball hit ball” regardless of whether she makes a hundred or 10. “They pick you for you, they don’t pick you and then ask you to play another style, they want you to play the way you play and they back you, with the ability you have,” Lee said.

Wolvaardt, a future Proteas captain

Laura Wolvaardt of South Africa plays a shot during the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final match between Australia and South Africa. Photo: EPA

ZAAHIER ADAMS

LAURA Wolvaardt possesses a striking cover drive. But there she was, dispatching Australian seamer Megan Schutt over the square-leg boundary for six in a T20 World Cup semi-final. While Wolvaardt has not quite worked out how exactly she is doing things at the moment, I can’t help feeling she will figure it all out rather quickly and that I am indeed sitting with a future Proteas captain. She gives a great degree of thought before answering each question. “I definitely take some time before the game to think about what I want to do and visualise what might happen and see myself playing well,” Wolvaardt said. These are all solid leadership credentials, but right now the SA’s Women’s Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year simply wants to enjoy the path of choosing to play cricket over her pending medicine studies. She will hopefully soon be teaming up with the Adelaide Strikers where Wolvaardt will share a dressing-room with New Zealand captain Suzie Bates in the Australian Women’s Big Bash League. It will be another leader to sponge off, after playing close attention to her all-time hero, Proteas skipper Dane van Niekerk. At only 21, Wolvaardt has the world at her feet.

FAST FACTS ABOUT WOLVAARDT

1 . She has 34.9k Instagram followers

2 . She is studying BSc Life Sciences through Unisa

3. She hosted several coaching clinics and mentorship programmes in Khayelitsha.

4. She has played 50 ODIs and 25 T20s for the Proteas

Mlaba spinning into full bloom

Cricket SA’s International Newcomer of the Year set for bright future

STUART HESS

NONKULULEKO Mlaba is a potential future star who you may have never heard of. Don’t worry. She is only 20 and has plenty of time on her side to make an impression and become a household name.

What will make Mlaba a household name is that she is just at the start of her journey as a professional athlete and that beginning just happens to coincide with increased attention on women’s cricket globally. In South Africa, the focus will be sharpened in the next couple of years, with the Proteas involved in two World Cups,

MAIN: Nonkululeko Mlaba in action against England at the T20 World Cup in Perth. Top: Celebrating with Dane van Niekerk after taking the wicket of Jess Jonassen of Australia during the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final between Australia and the Proteas at the SCG. Photos: EPA

one of which will take place in SA. Mlaba bowls left-arm spin, earning her the not so original nickname of “Leftie”. Perhaps over time, her friends and teammates will come up with something a little more inventive. What they do recognise is the impact she has had on the team in just nine international matches, all in the T20 format. Laura Wolvaardt garnered all the attention from a Proteas perspective at the T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year, but it was Mlaba who finished that tournament as the SA team’s emerging star. She opened the bowling as part of a strategy developed at the start of the competition to split up the team’s two potent quick bowlers, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, and as the tournament continued, she quickly grew into a potent threat with the new ball. She mixed up her pace intelligently and got the odd ball to spin. She was named the International Newcomer of the Year by Cricket SA in the organisation’s annual awards in July and with the SA team set for a busy schedule once the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, Mlaba is likely to be a critical part of that team given the big events that are on the horizon. “The year went so quickly,” said the KwaZulu-Natal spinner, who only made her international debut last September. “It started out with me not being entirely sure if I could make it at the top level.” There can be no doubts anymore. The Proteas have two World Cups scheduled in 2022 – the 50-over tournament in New Zealand at the start of that year and then the T20 competition, in SA. Mlaba is set to be a crucial part of those events, and by that stage should have reached household status.

Sizzling Nadine

Fearless Proteas all-rounder’s fire lights up career ahead

Nadine de Klerk celebrates after taking the wicket of Rachael Haynes of Australia during the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final in Sydney. Photo: EPA

ZAAHIER ADAMS

BEN Stokes’ first autobiography is entitled Firestarter. It’s not hard to imagine when Nadine de Klerk gets down to chronicling her cricket story one day, it could have a similar title. It’s not just the fact that De Klerk has red hair like Stokes, but rather that the Proteas rookie also fits the mould of an action-packed allrounder. Like Stokes, De Klerk has that magical ability to make something happen every time she takes the ball or walks to the crease. Equally, there is no situation too daunting. Take a T20 World Cup semi-final against powerhouse Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground for instance. And that’s not even the half of it. The deck was stacked even further with De Klerk only being told on the morning of the game that she was required to lace up. If that’s not enough to make a 20-year-old squirm, De Klerk was replacing a colossus of South African women’s cricket and her personal hero Marizanne Kapp. “She’s (Marizanne) a real competitor. I remember her face when she couldn’t play in the semifinal and my heart broke for her because I know how much of an impact player she is for our team”, said De Klerk. “I have a lot of respect for her. If there is one player in the team I look up to it is her. I think she leads from the front brilliantly and I have always wanted to be like her.” De Klerk’s accurate medium-pace lines and subtle change-ups saw her claim three Australian wickets that day. It was a performance worthy of propelling the Proteas into their first ever major ICC final. The fact that it was ultimately not enough was galling, particularly with De Klerk left stranded at the death with another hugely impressive youngster Laura Wolvaardt. One thing for certain, though, is that the Proteas have discovered a worthy successor to the evergreen Kapp when they launch another trophy assault in 2022.

Equally adept at both newaza (groundwork) and tachiwaza (standing fighting), Unelle Snyman pins her opponent on the mat in kesa-gatame. 1. Snyman is a big Springbok rugby fan. Before the 2019 World Cup final, she had two lines of advice for the Boks: ‘Do what you do best and you will win’ and ‘ ‘You just need to believe’

2. Snyman, a very talented netball player, accepted a netball bursary to study at Tuks

4. She attended Hoërskool Florida in Johannesburg – the same school attended by Springbok players Elton Jantjies and Wahl Bartmann

Judoka grapples with life decisions

Lockdown has given Unelle Snyman a different perspective on her sports career

HERMAN GIBBS

SOMETIMES you have to make tough choices, no matter how much you love your sport. Even if it means missing out on the Olympic Games. That’s the dilemma for 24-yearold Unelle Snyman, one of Africa’s leading judokas, as she ponders her Olympic participation next year. Snyman won silver at the African Games in Rabat last year and gold at the African Open in Dakar. She was on the verge of sealing Olympic qualification in the Under-78kg category in Morocco, but the event was cancelled in March. However, the unscheduled break has allowed Snyman to think about where her career might take her, and about life generally. Despite the demanding training schedules, she is studying for a sports psychology degree. “I consider myself a professional sportswoman. Thanks to Tuks (the University of Pretoria) and Judo South Africa, I can do so,” said Snyman. “But at some stage, I will have to face up to reality. There is no real money to be made as a judoka, not in South Africa anyway. I fully realise there is a life outside of sport.” But Snyman is not yet ready to give up on judo. “The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics might still turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It gives me more time to train as well as think as to what to do with my life,” said Snyman.

MAMA-JOY supporting her favourite team at a PSL match between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium. Photo: BackpagePix

MAMA-JOY … ONCE A PIRATE, ALWAYS A PIRATE

Football led Pirates’ super fan to start her own business and travel the world

MINENHLE MKHIZE

JUST about everyone in South African football knows who “Mama-joy” is. Joyce Chauke loves Orlando Pirates, the club that she passionately supports. She is present wherever and whenever the Buccaneers play. You will find her with all sorts of graphics and images painted on her face. That’s how much she loves her Buccaneers. Ironically, she was a Kaizer Chiefs fan in the 1980s. “At home, they used to support Kaizer Chiefs. My father was a Chiefs man through and through. My whole family were Chiefs fans and we had an argument with my brother back then and I told him that I was going to support Pirates. I wanted to make him angry,” Chauke said. “It was in 1989 when I started supporting Pirates and my love for the club grew from there.” Her love for football has taken her to many countries in Africa and Europe. She has also travelled the length and breadth of South Africa because of football. “I’ve been to the Women’s World Cup, the Olympic Games, Afcon, Caf Champions League matches away from home and the men’s World Cup. If it wasn’t for football, I wouldn’t be in those countries,” Chauke said. But even the World Cup or Olympics will never match Mama-joy’s love for Pirates.

Siyabulela Loyilane. Photo: Twitter

AN AGENT OF CHANGE

MINENHLE MKHIZE

THE desire to learn has made Siyabulela Loyilane a rising star among football agents – it’s an occupation dominated by men. Loyilane is a founder of Shumba’s Academy and has managed some of the top players in South Africa. Khama Billiat of Kaizer Chiefs was in her stable before crossing the road to Amakhosi from Mamelodi Sundowns. Loyilane is also the chief executive of the National Football Supporter’s Association. “What I like the most about player management is that it is the art of negotiation. I’ve learnt a lot, especially about determining the value of a player. Bringing people around the table and conducting negotiations is very interesting. The last deal that I did was Ricardo Versuur to TS Sporting,” Loyilane said. Loyilane spoke about the challenges she faces. “Agents are not respected. It is even worse when you are a woman and people in society are quick to blame the agent,” she said. “They are quick to say ‘players signed a bad contract and why didn’t you advise him’ on this when they don’t know the reason for the player taking that contract. “People also forget that as an agent you are just an adviser, but the final decision lies with the player.” Last year Loyilane was in Barcelona where she enrolled to study Masters in Football and Management Business.

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