Beating West Indies is not the be all, end all for Proteas, says Luus

WHILE she’s grown accustomed to captaining the national team, Sune Luus knows that the role will be very different in the next few weeks as the Cricket World Cup comes firmly into focus.

Luus is in her 10th year as an international player, has played 88 ODIS, been to World Cups in both 50 over and T20 formats, and captained the Proteas 16 times, and all that time and experience will be vital for her as she and the team wrap up preparations for the World Cup.

Leadership experience

While she has that leadership experience, Luus said Wednesday she was aware that a captaining at a World Cup will not be the same as doing so in a bilateral series.

“Captaining in a World Cup is a whole different ball game,” said the 26 year old all-rounder. “I also don’t have Dané (van Niekerk) here to kind of guide me through the different pressures that might come into play and the media which will be a lot.”

Van Niekerk fractured her ankle when slipping on the floor at home and will be out of action for three months. It was a significant blow for a team that has a realistic chance of challenging for the World Cup.

They’ve had some time to absorb the bad news, with Luus at the forefront of focusing everyone’s minds on the task that awaits them, starting with the four match series against the West Indies that gets under way, with a day/night encounter at the Wanderers today.

“It’s great to have these games leading into the World Cup, to prepare yourself to get the team accustomed to you again and build those relationships and that trust with the team,” she said. “I want to look it as just another cricket game, it’s on a bigger stage sure, but it’s a normal cricket game, take it like that and have a clear mind to make the right decisions.”

In that regard, Luus explained that the outcome of the series with West Indies isn’t as important as putting the final blocks in place for the Proteas’ World Cup campaign.

“This series is not the be all and end all of our focus at the moment. If we win all four games that will be a bonus. For us as a unit the bigger picture is the World Cup, and to try different combinations, see what works for us, what doesn’t and what we need to tweak. We also want to see where our preparations are and what we need to work on further,” she said.

There’ll be at least one new combination to test at the top of the order with Lizelle Lee, recently named ODI player of the year by the ICC, unavailable after contracting Covid.

“She is one of a kind, you can’t really replace her,” Luus said of Lee. “A couple of players have been knocking on the door in provincial games and in training camp. It is a good opportunity for them to really take that role and make it their own.”

Luus emphasised that latter point saying one source of motivation for the players is to make the job of the selectors as hard as possible.

“We haven’t picked the final squad for the World

Cup yet, so this is another opportunity for the players to make their job very difficult.

If everyone produces good performances, puts their hand up, that will make it extremely hard when the selectors have to choose that final squad for the World Cup.”

Today’s match starts at 2pm.