CAPE TOWN: Sinalo Jafta had just finished her wicketkeeping drills at the Western Province Cricket Club Ground on Thursday afternoon. In 24 hours, she will be walking onto the field at Newlands Cricket Stadium, wearing the Proteas jersey to take on England in the second semifinal of the 2023 T20 World Cup.
Did Jafta think they would be here before the tournament began? Turns out, she did when they were playing the tri-series against India at East London. “You know, when you dream of something, I imagined it. I got goosebumps as soon as Wolfi (Laura Wolvaardt) hit that four (against Bangladesh), I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s actually happening.’ I mean being at home, and it’s happening here? Yeah, it’s crazy,” laughs Jafta.
While the 28-year-old is living her dream now, it was not what she thought she would be doing when her mother put her in a boarding school at the age of six. She wanted a summer sport and her first choice was hockey. She grew up playing hockey in high school and wanted to represent South Africa at the Olympics one day. At that point, she did not even know there was a women’s cricket team. “I remember after hockey practice, athletics practice, I saw the coach training. I used to go bowl and from then, I just started playing for the school,” she says.
Interestingly, it was former South African pacer Makhaya Ntini who taught Jafta how to hold the seam. Coming from a similar region and upbringing as him, Ntini was the one who gave Jafta hope that she could play for her country one day. So much so that Jafta wanted to bowl fast and become an all-rounder, but destiny had other ideas. At the time, with no viable replacement for Trisha Chetty, gloves were thrust into her hands. “I wasn’t very happy with that, it took me like a year to finally get the gloves. And when I did, I was horrible. I couldn’t catch the ball. I learned a lot from the coaches along the way.”
Almost ten years later when she ran into Nitini at Gqeberha during the ongoing World Cup, life had come a full circle. “I actually bumped into him during a game and got the biggest hug. I was like, ‘Yayyy, I made it’!” For Jafta, this home World Cup feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I couldn’t have made it without my mom actually sacrificing me to go to boarding school. I mean, she did an exceptional job. Raising my brother and me alone as a teacher, was proper. I know that my mom sacrificed a lot of Saturdays because I don’t think I ever had a free weekend when I was younger. Just to see them at the games, so proud,” said Jafta.
That beaming smile could not be wiped off her face as she speaks about playing in front of her family in her home ground. “My mom now works for Western Cape Education in the office. Who can say that I played a semifinal at my home ground in Cape Town because I actually play here? For me, to actually be a part of it and be a part of history. It’s absolutely incredible,” she signed off.