Sports Desk:

South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt says test cricket will always be the pinnacle of the sport and believes the women’s game needs to be a showcase for more red-ball matches at the elite level.

Only 26 test series have been played in women’s cricket over the last two decades. Matches between England and Australia account for 12 of those, with the remainder also featuring India, South Africa and the Netherlands.

The West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – teams with well established men’s test sides – have not played in any during that period.

While New Zealand’s men won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021, the country’s women have not played a test since 2004.

“It’s very disappointing that these teams haven’t been able to play a test match,” Wolvaardt told Reuters in a recent interview.

“Some of the New Zealand players would be very good at test cricket. I hope it’s something that’s in the calendar more.

“It’s the ultimate form of the game, so I would love to see more of it in the schedule.”

Wolvaardt, who made her test debut in 2022 and scored her first century two years later, is only the third player to score a hundred in all three international formats after England’s Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont.

“I love test cricket … it’s definitely a big challenge, something to get used to having not played much of it domestically growing up or any of it for that matter. I really hope there’s more of it in the future,” she added.

Wolvaardt said domestic competitions such as the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in India and the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia were important for the growth of the women’s game.

“They (Australia) have a great system and setup. They’re obviously far ahead of some other countries development-wise,” Wolvaardt said. “They’ve had the Big Bash for about 10 years, whereas WPL is still pretty new.

“We don’t even have a league in South Africa.

“You can already see in India with the WPL only being around for three years now, the Indian team is playing better and it’s creating so much more depth for the side. I think we definitely need one in South Africa.”

Wolvaardt believes the WPL has been good preparation for the upcoming one-day World Cup in India later this year.

“Whatever time you can get in India, I think is invaluable … it will benefit the players who are here to spend a bit more time in India ahead of the big event,” she added.

South Africa will participate in a women’s ODI tri-series alongside Sri Lanka and India in April-May, which Wolvaardt says will be an excellent warm-up for the 50-overs World Cup.

Wolvaardt, who took over the captaincy on a permanent basis last year, said South Africa were coming through a transition phase and the future looked bright

“I’m fairly fresh in my captaincy role,” she added. “We have a quite a young group, had a lot of retirements about two or three years ago. It’s been a good process and I’m looking forward to the future.”