Sinalo Jafta

-Started watching cricket because of Makhaya Ntini and Mark Boucher

-Played hockey during her childhood, and only started playing cricket at the age of 13

-Jafta initially wanted to become an all-rounder

-Her hand-eye coordination at hockey helped her to lean towards batting

-After trying and testing fast bowling, Jafta, aged 18, decided to give up and followed her coach's advice (to keep wickets)

-Made her international debut at the age of 21.

Sinalo Jafta about her drinking addiction: I was in my first year in University. I think that's actually when the drinking started. Hockey fines - as I was playing Hockey. I thought I was just having fun and then you fast forward a few years and it was literally just for me to cope. I was drinking when I was upset, when I was happy. And drinking just became and it wasn't fun anymore. It just felt a necessity. Literally every emotion I felt like: "Cool, let me just drink on it". Two years ago, straight out of COVID, I think that is when I realised, this is becoming a daily thing whereas before it used to be a weekend thing. And I just remember just before the team flew out to Ireland last year, the team doctor came to me and told me: "Jaf, I think you have a problem" And I was like "Doc, what are you talking about? This is just fun. You know it's the typical life of an athlete. When you are not playing , it is my downtime." But my downtime prolonged even longer. I had team-mates coming to me saying: "Jaf, if you don't stop, you are going to mess up your career," but I think I was too far gone to even care. For me, it was like I needed to have that drink for me to cope with whatever challenges I faced. This New Zealand series we just had (October 2023), I celebrated my year in sobriety, so it was pretty cool to be surrounded with the same people that kind of shed light on my alcoholism. It was a long process, but at that time I just couldn't tell that it was affecting me. (In an interview with BBC's Alison Mitchell in October 2023).