CAPE TOWN – Cricket South Africa chief executive Thabang Moroe has described timing of the suspension of Proteas Women’s spinner Raisibe Ntozakhe’s as “inopportune”, but said the governing body will try to get her back on the pitch as soon as possible.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Tuesday that Ntozakhe’s bowling action was deemed to be illegal following an independent assessment.
All her delivered exceeded the 15-degree level of tolerance that is allowed, after she was reported following a one-day international against the West Indies in Barbados on September 16, with the assessment taking place on September 28 at the University of Pretoria.
It comes as an immediate blow to the Proteas Women’s team, as Ntozakhe was included in the squad for next month’s ICC World T20 in the Caribbean.
Cricket South Africa said on Wednesday that they will make an announcement on her replacement shortly, and that Raisibe will be based at the CSA Centre of Excellence and work with high-performance manager Vincent Barnes to remodel her action.
“The timing of this issue for Raisibe and for our World T20 squad is clearly inopportune, but we need to deal with it. We will work hard to remedy her action and have her retested as soon as practically possible,” Moroe said.
“We are fortunate to have invested in an ICC-accredited laboratory in South Africa (at the University of Pretoria), and this will certainly make a quick turnaround possible.”
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