Luus hopes Proteas make history at Women's World Cup: 'Hopefully, this year is our year'

Proteas skipper Sune Luus hopes her side can keep the trophy in South Africa as they host the T20 Women's World Cup next week.

The T20 Women's World Cup will be held for the first time on African soil from 10-26 February 2023, and it'll be the first senior ICC World Cup hosted in SA since 2007.

The Proteas women are in a tough Group 1 alongside Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh.

South Africa will open the tournament against Sri Lanka at Newlands on Friday, 10 February.

Luus's side will then complete their Group A fixtures with ties against New Zealand (13 February) in Paarl, defending champions Australia in Gqeberha (18 February) and Bangladesh (21 February) at Newlands.

In an International Cricket Council (ICC) column, Luus admits that the Proteas will use home-ground advantage.

"With it being a home World Cup, we're very excited. We're going to have all our family and friends at every game, so that's also very exciting," Luus told the ICC.

"The aim for every team in the World Cup is obviously to win that trophy... So hopefully, this year is our year where we can actually get through the semi-finals, get into that final and hopefully keep the trophy in South Africa. That would be amazing.

"We are used to the conditions, obviously being a home World Cup as well, we know what to expect from every ground we're going to be playing on. Hopefully, we can use that to our advantage."

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On Tuesday, the Proteas named their 15-player squad, with all-rounder Dane van Niekerk ruled out of the global showpiece.

Van Niekerk was deemed unfit and not eligible for World Cup selection. Van Niekerk failed in one category, needing to run