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Van Niekerk doubts she'll make Proteas U-turn: 'It's not the environment I want to be part of'

Former Proteas captain Dane van Niekerk doesn't believe she'll come out of retirement and represent her country.

In March, Van Niekerk, at aged 29, announced her bombshell retirement from international cricket.

The all-rounder was controversially left out of the Proteas' T20 World Cup squad on fitness grounds after she failed to make a 2km time trial by 18 seconds.

Van Niekerk was candid about her weight issues in an interview with the BBC, stating that she never felt comfortable in her cricket uniform.

"I don't feel like I'm overweight; I don't feel uncomfortable. But the moment I put on cricket clothes, I feel uncomfortable, and I don't feel like I need to," Van Niekerk told BBC Sport.

"It's easy to speak about the fitness aspect. It's not a lie - I was never the leanest cricketer in the world, but I won games for franchises. I won games for my country.

"I realise how important fitness is - I'll never shy away from that - but you cannot diminish somebody or make them feel bad because [they] don't look and do things the way that you expect."

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Van Niekerk represented the Proteas in 107 ODIs, 86 T20s and a single Test match against India in 2014.

She recorded 2 175 runs in ODI cricket, with a career-best score of 102 against Sri Lanka, while amassing 1877 runs in T20s, notching up 10 fifties.

With the ball, the leg-spinner bagged 204 international scalps overall (138 in ODIs, 65 in T20Is and 1 in Tests).

Van Niekerk, who has been plying her trade in T20 leagues around the world, says she doubts whether she'll return to the Proteas set-up.

"It's probably not [going to happen]. I've said my piece and they've said their piece, but it's an

Read more on news24.com