A reader, Paige Titus, shares her story of falling in love with cricket… and following her dreams of playing for the Proteas Women side (and much more!).

One night my family and I were watching the Women’s World T20 very late at night. It was the South African Women versus the England Women. The game went very well as I watched how amazing their bowling has been and how they work as a team.

Unfortunately South Africa lost the match, but their teamwork had inspired me to become a cricketer, and ever since that day I have been madly obsessed with this incredible sport.

I would practice backyard cricket every day as I went about learning to bowl spin ,and my family says I get better every day. My sister and I practice our batting every day since we both want to be really good all-rounders when we are older.

Our father found one of his really old bats that even had dents in it for me to practice with. I had begged my parents to buy me a cricket kit and to put me in a cricket team (we couldn’t really afford anything since we are struggling financially) so they decided to put my sister and I in a cricket team.

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My sister and I are the only girls in the team and we are both hoping to start our own women’s league, as I dream to be the best women’s cricketer in South Africa, or maybe even the world. It is one of my dreams to travel the world and I want to travel with the South African Team.

I know of very few women’s cricketers, and I dream to be an inspiration to all girls one day if I can make it to the top. This is one of my biggest dreams in all my life and I have never been so encouraged by all of my family and friends to do this and achieve my goal.

I have watched every cricket match ever since and each match has made me even more excited to be what I want to become, and I would really want to one day be playing alongside the people who inspired me to be what I want to become.

⁃ Paige Titus (14, Windsor Park, Kraaifontein, Cape Town) – story submitted by Jestine Titus