Women's cricket is really growing – Nadine de Klerk on the latest revolution in women’s sport

Women’s cricket has seen a revolution in recent times. From what used to be modest scores on the card to totals close to 200 being almost chased down, cricket has gone through a paradigm shift. Talking on Big Basket presents RCB Podcast, Nadine de Klerk highlighted how this shift didn’t happen overnight.

She opened up at length about how the work behind the scenes was always happening. Nadine de Klerk acknowledged how a mind shift in terms of professionalism has also been a pivotal factor in women’s cricket getting a major leap.

Nadine de Klerk said, “I actually saw a stat the other day on where they showed the ODI total in 22 till 2024 compared to this year or 2025, and it was actually a massive difference, the amount of 300 plus scores, the amount of over-boundaries, and the amount of sixes that's been hit, like almost triple the amount that it used to be.”

Adding further, Nadine de Klerk stated, “So it just shows that women's cricket is really growing and I guess a lot of it comes down to the professionalism and like I said, just the way the game grows that people probably train a bit different. There's good coaches going around kind of teaching us because we're not as powerful as the men obviously, so six hitting for them is such a natural thing. With the ladies game, it's not necessarily the same, it probably is a bit harder to kind of be that powerful.”

Explaining the hard-hitting factor, Nadine de Klerk said, “It's not something that just comes naturally, so I think a lot has changed in terms of training and the way we go about the women's game and like I said, it's so exciting to see because these days if you get 300, that's actually just four, where back in the day if you scored a 250, you're probably winning nine out of 10 games.”

She concluded by saying, “And the same with the WPL, I mean the scores in the last couple of seasons have all been going up. So yeah, I think women's cricket is really on the rise and it's exciting to be a part of it and I don't think it's as boring as it used to be like 10 years ago where people would just get 180 and stall in the game. I think these days it's really competitive.”