As South Africa celebrates National Women’s Day on Tuesday, 9 August 2011, CSA CEO Gerald Majola acknowledged and thanked the many individuals who contribute significantly to the growth of the game.
“CSA is fortunate to have so many dedicated and passionate women working towards the growth of the company and the game itself. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these strong women for their commitment to cricket.
“Female support of cricket is also on the rise, so thank you to all the women cricket fans, who passionately support the game. Happy Women’s Month to all,” said Majola.
Women’s cricket is one of CSA’s fastest growing developmental spheres and the national women’s team has risen to fifth place in the Reliance Mobile ICC rankings through the support and guidance of their dedicated team management, which consists of former player and now team manager Kerri Laing; “In all the positions I have held the overriding goal is to have women’s cricket in the top tiers of the international game and winning a World Cup,” she said.
“As a woman this to me would mean that the women’s game has finally been taken seriously and that women have been given a fair opportunity to represent their country at the highest level and be rewarded for being good at a sport that most think only men should be playing,” Laing continued.
Elise Lombard has been at the helm of Northerns Cricket Union for the past 30 years; she is a veteran in the world of cricket and has been a great source of encouragement to many young women working in the world of cricket. This unashamedly feminine woman is not fazed by working in a male dominated environment where she is more often than not the only female present in CEO’s meetings; “I have always approached my job as someone capable of running a successful operation/business. Cricket is after all a business with many facets. Women have increasingly become important role players in sport; they have proved themselves capable of taking the field on the competitive stage,” she said.
Unlike most people Lombard does not see being a member of the fairer sex as a disadvantage, “Women have a keen sense of intuition for the ‘softer’ issues of life and are not driven by egos as are our male counterparts. Women are better equipped to give attention to detail and most of us will acknowledge that generally speaking ‘the devil is in the detail’,” she aptly said.
Zola Thamae’s involvement in cricket started in 1996 when she recruited girls from the less fortunate areas to play cricket. This very busy mother of two was elected President of the Free State Women’s Cricket Association in 1996, a position she holds to date. She was then appointed as Volunteers Coordinator in the Free State for the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup. Thamae is also Vice President of the South African Women’s Cricket Association, a position she has held since 2000 and is also the former manager of the national women’s team. Thamae was a member of the Local Organizing Committee for 2005 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
She has fought long and hard to be accepted by her male peers; “I must say the acceptance into the man’s world was not easy at first but I am no longer treated based on gender rather on what I can contribute as an individual,” she said.
“To show that men have confidence in me, they still nominate me to be in positions of power simply because of what I can offer at a strategic level,” she continued.
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