Worth the weight? Dane Van Niekerk decision hands cricket modern day dilemma

Once upon a time, cricket was seen as a universal game. Not just in its appeal to a global audience but for the fact that individuals of any shape, size, colour, creed or class could play alongside each other.

With the news that Dane van Niekerk, one of the best players in the women's game, has been left out of South Africa's Twenty20 World Cup squad on fitness grounds alone, this age-old perception may just have landed in the trashcan.

Less athletic players, it seems, are now being penalised, no matter how good they are at actually playing cricket. And yet some of the greatest players would have struggled to pass fitness tests, certainly in their older years.

READ | 'We did all we could': Unpacking SA star's failed fitness test as World Cup dream shattered

WG Grace, who used to "block shooters to the boundary" in the 19th century, may have started his career as a lithe athlete but had little time for the sharp single as his waistline expanded in his thirties and forties.

Warwick Armstrong, one of Australia's greatest captains in the early part of the 20th century, was known as the "Big Ship" because of his 130kg frame and billowing shirt.

Van Niekerk, 29, is a leg-spinning all-rounder and the only South African woman to have scored more than 1,500 runs and taken more than 50 wickets in women's T20 internationals.

From 2016 to 2021 she captained the side in all three formats.

However, she last played for the national team in September 2021 and has been recovering from a broken ankle.

Her exclusion from the World Cup squad was because she did not achieve the required time for a two-kilometre run.

Having lost 10kg since playing in England last summer and in spite of running a personal best, she missed the nine minute 30 seconds