South Africa allrounder Dane van Niekerk to retire from international cricket

Van Niekerk's decision comes just a couple of months after she was left out of South Africa's T20 World Cup squad for failing a fitness test

South Africa allrounder Dane van Niekerk is retiring from international cricket, according to ESPNCricinfo.

The former skipper, who made her international debut back in 2009, made 194 appearances across all formats, scoring 4,074 runs and taking 204 wickets.

Her decision comes just a couple of months after she was controversially left out of South Africa's T20 World Cup squad. Van Niekerk fell short of Cricket South Africa's benchmark for the 2km time trial as she attempted to regain fitness after time out of the game with a broken ankle.

South Africa went on to reach the final of their home World Cup, losing to Australia in February's final.

^{Van Niekerk made her international debut back in 2009 [Carl Fourie/Getty Images]}

^{Van Niekerk in action at the 2020 T20 World Cup [Paul Kane/Getty Images]}

Hinting at her retirement in an Instagram post on March 10, van Niekerk wrote: "You have to accept that some chapters in our lives will close without closure.

"There's no point in losing yourself by trying to fix what's meant to stay broken."

On March 11, van Niekerk's wife, and fellow South Africa international, Marizanne Kapp, also took to social media, posting a series of photos captioned, "End of an era". She later described herself as "heartbroken" in response to a tweet from ESPNcricinfo referencing van Niekerk's decision.

Van Niekerk retires as South Africa's longest-serving women's ODI captain, leading the side on 50 occasions. She scored 2,175 runs and taking 138 wickets in 107 ODI appearances – only Shabnim Ismail and Kapp have taken more wickets.

She made a further 86 T20I appearances, serving as captain on 30 occasions, and scoring 1,877 runs – second only to Lizelle Lee – and taking 65 wickets.

She made one Test appearance against India in 2014.

Due to injury, van Niekerk's final international outing came back in September 2021, when South Africa took on West Indies in an ODI in North Sound.

What an era❤❤❤❤😊 https://t.co/SgEapan9gT

— Danevn81 (@Danevn811) March 11, 2023