Sinalo Jafta awarded national contract

Sinalo Jafta, the wicket-keeper batter from South Africa, has been awarded her maiden national contract. The 24-year-old’s selection for the final T20I against India in Surat saw her qualify to join the group of 15 centrally contracted South Africa players for the 2019-20 season.



“Congratulations to Sinalo on her upgrade to a national contract following her consistent selection and performance for the Proteas this year to achieve the necessary threshold,” Corrie van Zyl, Cricket South Africa’s acting director of cricket. “The contract will apply retrospectively back to May 1 2019 and will run until April 30 2020.”



Since her ODI debut in 2016, Jafta has found herself in and out of the squad, serving largely as understudy to Trisha Chetty and Lizelle Lee in the T20I format. However, having been handed a T20I debut earlier this year, the left-hander has since played six matches in that format for South Africa— the last of which came against India in September.



“We have introduced this change to assist in the retention of talent and the objective of creating parity within women’s cricket. This is an important step forward as we strive for gender equality as far as cricket is concerned.



“I am sure this will encourage all our provincial players in the knowledge that national contracts are within reach via performance,” concluded Van Zyl.



CSA contracted players: Trisha Chetty, Mignon du Preez, Shabnim Ismail, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas, Lizelle Lee, Sune Luus, Zintle Mali, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Tumi Sekhukhune, Chloe Tryon, Dane van Niekerk, Laura Wolvaardt.