The Eastern Cape Iinyathi Women will have the advantage of playing both their CSA Women’s Provincial T20 and 1-Day Division 2 campaigns at home as they begin their bid for promotion to the Hollywoodbets Pro Series, the professional domestic arm of women’s cricket.
They are in the coastal pool with Boland, Border Kei, Free State and Northern Cape.
The Iinyathi will play opposition teams twice on the same weekend in the 50-over and 20-over formats.
They welcome Boland at the Buffalo Park Cricket Ground in KuGompo City for both white-ball formats from October 17 and 18.
They will then travel to play Free State between November 14 and 15 before they have a break in December and January.
When they return, they face the Northern Cape at Buffalo Park on February 27 and 28.
They conclude their campaigns with a local derby against Kei in Mthatha on March 13 and 14.
In the T20 competition, the Iinyathi registered only one victory in their four matches last season, something they will look to improve on under new head coach Lolwethu Dekeza.
Dekeza had said they would have some practice games in September before the start of the season.
“We had fitness sessions at the start of August, and we are building our preseason nicely, and by October we should be ready to go,” he said.
Dekeza had previously said that his first year in the job would be building a structure and culture within the team.
He believes that once the team has its identity, the results will not be hard to achieve.
His overall plan is to build a pool of players for the seniors.
Part of his plan is to have combined training sessions every week between the U19s and the senior team.
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