Another gate at SuperSport Park named after women’s cricket star
Northerns Cricket continues to honour stars from the Titans women's team in a very special way, after the second gate at the SuperSport Park stadium recently got a new name.
With the grand entrance to SuperSport Park leading to the grass banks on the south side of the stadium already named after the pioneering women’s cricket legend, Mignon du Preez, the management of Northerns Cricket have done it again.
Despite being at a relatively young age for a professional athlete, Momentum Proteas all-rounder Suné Luus recently celebrated her 10th anniversary as an international cricketer for South Africa.
She has become a household name in South African cricket since bursting onto the scene in September 2012, going onto play 198 matches for her country across all formats. Luus’ career has developed in parallel to the evolution of the Proteas Women set-up that has gone from minnow to mainstay near the top of the women’s game.
With the Titans Women’s team she has been a stalwart since she was 13 years old and she started playing international cricket for the Proteas Women’s team at 16. Although she is only 26 years old, Luus has already represented her country in 106 One Day International matches, 91 T20 matches and one official test.
As a captain she holds the national record, having already led the Proteas Women’s team on the field for the first time at 21.
It is therefore no wonder that the Titans decided to name the gate right in front of the SuperSport Park stadium after this young star.
This former resident of the Moot of Pretoria, who played her first competitive cricket with the boys at Laerskool Voorpos, had the privilege that her parents, Braam and Cecile Luus, could accompany her recently when this designation was validated with an official ceremony is.
“I actually can’t believe its 10 years already. I started at obviously a young age, so the first five years of my career just flew by,” Luus noted.
She was still a school girl for half of that.
“You just go to school and play some cricket and that’s kind of your career. It wasn’t professionalized back then, so the second half of my career is more professionalized and more of a career than the first half,” she remarked.
Luus said it is a huge honour to play for her country and represent her family and everything the badge stands for.
“I don’t think I saw myself playing for South Africa, it’s been a blessing to be a part of this side and hopefully there will be another 10 to come,” the former pupil of Die Hoërskool Menlopark added.
Growing up as a talented multi-sport athlete, Luus has always had a close affinity with extramural activities that included a ball. She explains how her family and former KFC Mini-Cricket coach-dad influenced her passion for cricket, including a pivotal conversation with Proteas head coach, Hilton Moreeng that led to her choosing cricket as a pathway in life.
At one stage in her school career she was a champ on the tennis court.
“Hilton asked me at one stage, ‘Listen you have to make a choice, are you going to Sun City to play a couple of tennis games or are you coming to a national camp?’ That was the turning point for when I thought I could take cricket seriously and make a career out of it,” she revealed.
The rest is history. Nowadays, the young lady is a familiar face on cricket fields around the world and according to her own testimony, she is living her dream. To top it all off, Titans fans can watch their heroes after entering SuperSport Park through the Sune Luus gate.
