Talita Wiegand led South Africa’s action cricket team to two world cup victories
Crawford International teacher openly reflects on her career as a two-time action cricket world championship-winning captain.
Ahead of the Action Cricket World Cup which will be hosted by Sri Lanka next year, two-time South Africa team captain Talita Wiegand reflects on the feeling of being a part of the national team – which won back-to-back world cup tournaments under her captaincy.
“It was an incredibly humbling experience to be part of it all,” Wiegand said. “But thinking about it again is just making my heart race.”
Wiegand said her team was considered the underdogs at the inaugural Action Cricket World Cup in 2016. The South African team was regarded as ‘fire’ in their 2019 performance – which won them their second world cup in a row.
Indoor sports are on the rise, according to Wiegand – noting that people may still not know about opportunities to represent their country in action sports at an international level.
“What is really interesting is how many people have played action cricket or action netball before,” said Wiegand. “Unfortunately, I don’t think people know that there are [also] leagues, arena teams, provincial and national teams.”
Wiegand teaches junior Afrikaans and senior life orientation at Crawford International Sandton – and still manages to make time to participate in action cricket activities in her spare time.
“Our provincial tournament was held in May earlier this year, [for which] our North Western Gauteng, aka The Phoenix, practised every other Saturday,” Wiegand said. “We then rolled over into the super league season where we play every other Sunday, so practices must be organised on Fridays after work.”
Wiegand said the national team holds a weekend training camp every month towards preparing for the upcoming world cup.
“We are still currently in a squad system with first cuts being made the long weekend over September 23 – 25,” said Wiegand. “[The] final team should be announced early in the new year, as the world cup will be [held over] September/October 2024 in Sri Lanka. Plenty of fundraising still needs to happen, as we pay for ourselves.”
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