We want to take it a step further and win the trophy this time. Laura Wolvaardt

Laura Wolvaardt, the women’s captain of South Africa, is determined to captain the side in the UAE in 2024 during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. She desires the Proteas to break free from their ICC tournaments curse and reach the top of the podium after numerous slip-ups and near-misses. Written just for ICC:

Being South Africa’s captain going into my first World Cup is an incredible thrill.

Being granted the chance to lead my nation is extremely special, and it will present a whole new set of challenges for me.

I’ve just got to concentrate on one series at a time and one team at a time during my first year as captain. I now have a tonne of different teams to concentrate on, and every game brings a fresh opponent and set of players to research and prepare for. It will be a significant task, but I’m eager for it. Few players get the opportunity to experience such a great honour and distinction in their career.

For us, making it to the 2023 World Cup final was a significant turning point. For the team, it was a significant instance of “breaking the barriers and pushing the boundaries.”

We had previously advanced to the semi-finals several times, so it was crucial for us as a team to be able to advance that far. We would like to go one step further and raise the trophy at this point, but in T20 cricket, anything can happen in the final after you’ve competed through the full season.

Really, all we need to do is focus on each game individually and keep in the back of our minds that, with a group not too dissimilar from the one we had previously, we have the skill and capacity to advance to the championship.

The fact that Dubai and Sharjah will host the T20 World Cup excites me much. The fact that it’s essentially neutral ground for either team is, in my opinion, really awesome. It’s exciting because most of the teams won’t have played there much before and will have similar experience with the weather. everything should be interesting to watch whose team can sum everything up the fastest and adjusts to the conditions the best.

Since there isn’t really a home-field advantage for any club, the team with the best ability to analyse and determine the playing circumstances will have the best chance of winning. Considering the sizeable expat presence in the area, it will also be intriguing to observe the numbers at the matches. It’s wonderful to think that nearly every team will have a sizable fan base attending to cheer them on, which is something special about this year’s competition.

We’ve done a great job of being prepared. After a fantastic tour of India, we split up into groups of ten for a month, with some of us travelling to The Hundred and the others staying at home. In addition, we conducted match situations and a lot of skill development that is necessary for T20 cricket in two different camps.

At home, it has been winter, so when we come to the competition, the temperature can be a little unexpected. You can’t really prepare for 40 or 45 degree weather when it’s just 10 or 15 degrees Celsius at home.

Also Read: Laura Wolvaardt, Anneke Bosch, and Annerie Dercksen help South Africa win the series 2-1

We’ll have a lot of work to do to adjust to the heat. Other than that, though, I believe we’ve checked every box, which should help us at the World Cup.