South Africa star all-rounder Dane van Niekerk who is currently part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad in the Women's Premier League is set to announce her retirement from international cricket. Van Niekerk last played an international game back in September 2021. However, she was ruled out due to a broken ankle.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is not aware of the situation to date. The board will announce the national women's contracts later this month. CSA had earlier given a confirmation on Sune Luus to be the permanent captain ahead of the T20 World Cup where South Africa reached the final.
The news came a month and a half after Dane's non-selection in the T20 World Cup squad which raised many eyebrows. She had failed to pass the fitness test by 18 seconds. Even though she achieved her personal best in the test, she missed the cut in the South Africa team for the tournament.
"You have to accept that some chapters in our lives have to close without closures," van Niekerk posted a cryptic post on her Instagram account on Saturday. "There is no point in losing yourself by trying to fix what's meant to stay broken," the post further read.
In her career so far, Van Niekerk played 107 ODIs for South Africa and scored 2175 runs, and took 138 wickets. When it comes to T20Is, she scored 1877 runs at a strike rate of 94.94 and scalped 65 wickets at an economy rate of 5.45 in the 86 matches that she played.
