Cape Town — The Proteas Women's team are in high spirits now that they can finally begin their preparations in earnest for the 2022 World Cup after serving their time in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) in New Zealand.
The MIQ restrictions in New Zealand are among the most stringent in the world and it certainly takes a toll on the players physical and mental well being.
"We have been in stuck in a room for quite a while," Proteas batter Lara Goodall said. "It feels amazing actually (to be outside of a hotel room). If you include the traveling then it's more than a week.
"It was good to get out and have a bit of a refresher. I literally just wanted to take a walk. To walk wherever I wanted and to stretch my legs."
Goodall will be an integral part of the Proteas' quest to win their maiden Women's World Cup title as she occupies the crucial No 3 position in the batting line-up. The stylish left-hander was not at her best during the series against the West Indies preceding the World Cup and was actually dropped after the second ODI, but she believes everything has been geared to peaking at the eight-team jamboree that starts next month.
"Our focus has been on the World Cup even before the West Indies series. We took our World Cup thinking into that series and wanted to fine tune our skills in that series," Goodall said.
A crucial part of Goodall and the rest of the team's preparation will be done over the course of the next week under the close eye of Proteas strength and conditioning coach Zane Webster.
"It has been very tough conditions, but I think the spirits were lifted when we got a message after five days that we could go out after seven days instead of the stipulated 10 days previously," Webster said.
"We've doing this Covid thing for a while but this was nothing compared to what we've done before. It was quite tough. We quite relieved to be out of isolation.
"The first thing we needed to assess was what we had at our disposal. We had two stretch bands and a spinning bike. Gave the girls some days off to get over the jet lag and then we can get straight into it," Webster added.
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