Cricket SA (CSA) is backing SA Women’s Cricket coach Hilton Moreeng despite the team’s failure to win the recently concluded 2022 ICC World Cup in New Zealand.
CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki has issued a vote of confidence in Moreeng, who will continue in his role until the end of his contract next year.
The Proteas women suffered a heartbreaking 137-run semifinal loss to England last week at the event, but Moseki insists Moreeng remains the right man for the job.
Since he took over in 2012, the SA women’s team has made considerable progress, reaching the semifinals if the T20 World Cup in 2014, ODI World Cup in 2017, and this year again.
In 2020 Moreeng extended his contract with CSA by a further three years and he will be with the side in next year’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, to be hosted in SA.
“There is no question regarding Hilton Moreeng’s continued employment,” Moseki said.
“He has done an amazing job for the team and we definitely believe he is the best man for the job. There is the T20 World Cup next year that we need to prepare for, so there is definitely no question about his job not being safe.”
Moseki said Moreeng and his technical team will submit a postmortem report to CSA about what happened at the tournament, which will help them to prepare for the future.
“We will give team management some time to settle down, but they will obviously prepare a post-tournament report and we will take it from there. We know the preparations that they had before the tournament in New Zealand were actually very good.
“Hence they went into the tournament as the number two-ranked team in the world and second favourites, to be honest.”
Moseki said the aim in New Zealand was to win the tournament and CSA is disappointed SA could not go that far.
“Obviously we are disappointed and sad about not making the final, but definitely not as much as the team, which is gutted about not having been able to bring the trophy home.
“They went to New Zealand to collect the World Cup, but having said that, we all have to be proud of the strides that they have made over the last few years. This team is definitely not one of the also-rans, it is a team that is made up of superstars and they can only get better.”
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