Proteas Women to play red-ball matches at camp in Pretoria

It will be the first time the SA women convene since the Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in March.

The camp, scheduled for 5-20 May, will include fitness assessments and technical skills sessions with two red-ball, inter-squad matches.

The red-ball matches will help the Proteas prepare for their first Test in eight years on their multi-format tour of England from 27 June - 25 July.

The England tour will be preceded by three T20 Internationals and three ICC Women’s Championship One-Day Internationals against Ireland in Dublin between 3-17 June.

"We took a lot of positives from the World Cup, and it was important for us to give the players a well-deserved break after almost 90 days away from home, to give them time to regroup and spend time with family," head coach Hilton Moreeng said in a statement.

"There are two boxes we would like to tick (during camp). The first one would be fitness and rehabilitation assessments and then also make sure we touch base with the overall squad, including the high-performance and national academy players.

"We are also now looking at how we can address the red-ball because this will be our first Test match after a very long time, so this camp will be giving everyone an opportunity to play red-ball cricket, which as you know in the country, is not a format that we've played a lot.  It is going to be new for most players and this will be a good opportunity for them to get exposed to that so we can be ready for the Test match when we get to England."

It's a 27-strong squad, with a number of promising talents from the South African Emerging squad, including Nondumiso Shangase, Delmi Tucker and Leah Jones, training with the Proteas stars who travelled to the global showpiece in New Zealand.

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