Proteas men, women eye T20 World Cup glory

South African cricket still needs its Hollywood ending for World Cups.

In recent years, the Proteas men and women have ended white-ball events with storylines that would create Oscar buzz because they’ve been grounded in reality, not ludicrous fantasy.

Rocky Balboa loses at the end of the first Rocky movie, but the film won an Oscar. The second film, with Sylvester Stallone’s character ridiculously getting to his feet before Apollo Creed, received no Oscar, yet Rocky had won.

South African cricket will gladly take the conclusion to the sequel. Reality has been nice, but 2026 must be the year of fantasy.

The opportunities for Laura Wolvaardt and Aiden Markram’s teams come in the shape of T20 World Cups this year.

The men get to go first next month, opening against Canada in a Group D clash at the vast Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which will likely be sparsely populated for that February 9 encounter.

The Proteas have not been shy to take risks, with the squad omitting notable individuals like Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs — and giving Tony de Zorzi (not a regular at T20 level) and Jason Smith (not a regular at any level internationally) the opportunity to break the white ball curse.

But winning the World Cup won’t be dependent on them. Instead, those who’ve known heartbreak need to soothe the pain of recent tournament sojourns where the Proteas have come up short.

Markram, Quinton de Kock — who has specifically reneged on his international retirement to have another go at a World Cup — Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, and David Miller have all copped bruising blows and will be tasked with taking a dramatic Rocky-like step.

It’s a very different pressure than that faced by previous generations, who struggled to get past the semifinals. The current players have done that, and some, who’ve been part of the Test team like Markram and Rabada, have felt the warmth of holding aloft a trophy.

The opportunity for Wolvaardt’s team comes in June when they head to England for the 10th edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Getting to the finals is becoming familiar territory for them. They’ve done so three times in the last few ICC tournaments, including the 2023 and 2024 versions.

It was noticeable upon their return from the ODI World Cup that, in addition to the mixture of pride and disappointment that followed their losses to Australia and New Zealand in the T20 competitions, there was also annoyance with coming up short, once again in the final of the ODI event, against India.

In all three finals, they haven’t produced their best, and in two of them, Wolvaardt fought a lone hand with little to no support in a couple of run-chases.

They’re irritated with their shortcomings, and for the likes of Chloe Tryon and Marizanne Kapp, opportunities are running out. A return for Dane van Niekerk suggests head coach Mandla Mashimbyi believes the side needs more experience and, with the bat, more aggression in the middle order.

Van Niekerk needs very little to motivate her, and the early signs against Ireland this season were encouraging. But bigger Tests await, notably against New Zealand in March, before the World Cup.

Proteas open that tournament against Australia at Old Trafford on June 13, so there’ll be no soft landing in the UK. Public pressure will be bigger, but it won’t come close to the internal expectations the players have of themselves after getting so close in the last three years.

Off the field, there are big expectations of Cricket SA (CSA) too. The organisation must ensure that future-proofing mechanisms that have been the subject of talks in the last 18 months lead to some kind of implementation.

Larger, more financially powerful forces internationally may demand the CSA makes changes far quicker than local administrators think. While there’s still a chance to control their destiny, they must take it.

Would it be too much to ask that CSA’s administrators, those on the Board of Directors and especially the provincial presidents that make up the Members Council, show due care for the future of the sport?

Those administrators don’t need to look far into the past to understand what foolish, self-absorbed tactics can lead to, and how they can cost jobs and damage reputations.