“You’d obviously want to go and hug your mate but that can’t happen now,” says Chloe Tryon

Lockdown has been harsh for people throughout the world. The complications have been manifold for players. They were living a life where turf was their second home. Fortunately, Protea Women have wrapped up their first training camp after the pandemic set in its foot on South African soil.

 

As per Supersport.com, the wait was 143 days long and the Vice-Captain of the team expressed her feeing when she said: “The wait has been very difficult”. Chloe Tyron has been a part of a skills-based training camp at the Powerade High-Performance Centre (HPC) in Pretoria. Amidst the stern norms of physical distancing and bio-bubbles, it is natural to expect players not to have a conventional reunion or anything of that sort.

Chloe said, “You’d obviously want to go and hug your mate but that can’t happen now”. It has to be noted that the National High-Performance squad spent a time period of one week. They were living on-site at HPC and were subjected to a bio-secure environment. The new norm during training is pretty tough, everyone’s kind of scattered,” said Tryon.

She further added that: “All the girls are very aware of what needs to happen and everyone’s been really good this week with regards to keeping distance and making sure that we’re sanitizing everything”.

Vice-Captain for Proteas is an all-rounder and enjoyed some balls on her bat. She had survived a total of four months without picking the bat to face some red cherries. She explained that “I was just getting back to basics with all aspects of the game”. She further added that “It’s been a while since I batted, bowled and fielded, so it was nice to start with the basics and keep it pretty simple. I didn’t want to jump right ahead”.

 

 

Moreover, this was the first time when the girls had played cricket under their new coach Hilton Moreeng after his reappointment. Apart from him, Dillion du Preez was the bowling consultant for the side as well. Moreeng said, “He helped with the technical work and worked closely with the seamers”.

He added that “It was good to have him here because of the knowledge and experience that he has. What also helped was his past experience in women’s cricket. We’re very happy with the work that he’s done for us this week”. South African side is slated to play the English side at their home and these preparations are for the tour. Interestingly, the second training camp will be held from 16 to 27 August.

The players will be as follows –

Dané van Niekerk (Eastern Province), Lizelle Lee (North-West), Marizanne Kapp (Eastern Province), Mignon du Preez (Northerns), Suné Luus (Northerns), Chloe Tryon (KZN Coastal), Shabnim Ismail (KZN Coastal), Ayabonga Khaka (Gauteng), Maria Klaas (North West), Trisha Chetty (KZN Coastal), Sinalo Jafta (Western Province), Laura Wolvaardt (Western Province), Tumi Sekhukhune (North West), Nadine de Klerk (Western Province), Nonkululeko Mlaba (KZN Coastal), Nondumiso Shangase (KZN Coastal), Faye Tunnicliffe (Western Province), Zintle Mali (Border), Raisibe Ntozakhe (Gauteng), Lara Goodall (Western Province), Anneke Bosch (North West), Tazmin Brits (North West), Robyn Searle (Northerns), Andrie Steyn (Western Province).