EDITORIAL | Where to next for Proteas Women and Banyana Banyana?

For the second time within a year the women’s team in a traditionally male-dominated sport has reminded us why even the term “traditionally male-dominated” is almost obsolete.

And also for the second time, the male administrators of said sports are making promises.

The Proteas Women’s run to a World Cup final — like Banyana Banyana’s heroic maiden Women’s Africa Cup of Nations win in the final against hosts Morocco in Rabat in July last year — deserves to stand alone as a South African sporting achievement, not defined by gender.

Yes, both showed up their men’s counterparts. Bafana Bafana's underachievement has been well-documented, and the Proteas have battled for consistency of late and never reached a World Cup final. That’s not the point though.

The Proteas surpassed expectations, reaching the final of 2023 ICC T20 Women’s World Cup staged in Cape Town and Gqeberha with a brave performance. They ground their way with sheer grit through the group phase, shocked excellent powerhouse England in the semifinal and ran six-time champions Australia close in the final at Newlands. They became the first South African senior cricket team to reach a World Cup final. End of story.

Success does deserve reward. And that is why Cricket South Africa has made promises of professionalising women’s domestic cricket and perhaps launching a women’s SA20.

Though also not quite end of story, because the question is: where to from here?

Bringing women’s team sports to a point of complete equality in previously male-dominated sports has its challenges. Cases should be taken in isolation. The US women’s soccer team that won its battle for equal pay had an argument, strengthened considerably by their huge success as the world’s best team in women’s football, and because in America the female game is as popular, or even more so, than the male counterpart.

That is not the case in women’s soccer, cricket or rugby in South Africa. The Proteas Women packed stadiums for the first time in the World Cup and that was wonderful to see. But they still do not draw big crowds outside World Cups. The empty stadiums in the tournament in non-SA games also reinforce how women’s cricket lags in interest and in sponsorship appeal.

Perhaps, though, like justifications made for unequal pay in the workplace, that’s also just a form of excuse. Success does deserve reward. And that is why Cricket South Africa has made promises of professionalising women’s domestic cricket and perhaps launching a women’s SA20 in just more than a year.

One can only hope those kinds of promises — like those of professionalising women’s domestic soccer made after Banyana’s success — are not lip service and can be kept. Women’s cricket and football have shown they deserve it and need it to continue their development.