South Africa Need WPL-like Tournament To Create Depth: Laura Wolvaardt

Laura Wolvaardt advocated for the introduction of leagues like the Women's Premier League (WPL) and Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) in South Africa. Wolvaardt has played three seasons in the WPL — all for Gujarat Giants (GG) — and has scored 342 runs at a strike rate of 125.73.

"They have a great system and setup. They're obviously far ahead of some other countries development-wise," Wolvaardt said of the WPL and WBBL in a chat with Reuters. 

"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."

With the Women's ODI World Cup scheduled to be played in India later this year, the South Africa skipper feels this season of the WPL acts as an excellent preparation for the mega event.

"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 said.

She also expressed her unhappiness over the lack of Tests and called for more of such matches in the future. Moreover, she was not pleased with the fact that teams like West Indies and New Zealand have barely played Tests in the last few years.

"It's very disappointing that these teams haven't been able to play a Test match," she said.

"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."