Moreeng hopes to close women's cricket gap, optimistic over future: 'It's a progress'

Proteas coach Hilton Moreeng says Cricket South Africa (CSA) is looking at closing the gap in the women's cricket pipeline ahead of a busy summer.

With injuries and retirements, Moreeng and his side have had to experiment, which resulted in a poor showing against England and the Commonwealth Games.

This year, South Africa dealt with the sudden retirement of star batters Lizelle Lee and Mignon du Preez. And with several of their senior players in their 30s, the SA women are looking to usher in a new generation.

South Africa only return to international cricket in January, where they take on India and West Indies in a tri-series before hosting the T20 Women's World Cup.

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The Proteas and an extended high-performance squad of 25 are in East London for a training camp from 1-10 November ahead of South Africa hosting the U19 Women's World Cup and T20 World Cup.

Moreeng insists they're trying to introduce more players into the national system and hope to strengthen their pipeline.

"We saw in England some of the youngsters we've thrown in and we tried different combinations that we were not used to," Moreeng told reporters on Tuesday.

"Yes, the results didn't go away, but the bigger picture for us was that some of the youngsters could experience how it feels to play against the best. And when you're given the opportunity in a role to do in a team and some of them went back and worked extremely hard, or only they came back as different cricketers.

"So it's one of those we're looking at going into the World Cup. We have an opportunity now in December for the Women's Super League to play in Cape Town, where selectors will be looking at strength versus strength