Quiet Ayabonga Khaka gets Proteas aiming for more

Xesi (previously Middledrift) is a town most South Africans would not be able to point out on a map. 

Situated 90km northwest of East London — a city most only tell bad jokes about — most news about Xesi concerns corrupt local councillors, rundown schools, poorly maintained sewage facilities, and the resultant service delivery protests. 

It is also home to one of South Africa’s finest cricketers, but you’ll have a hard time getting her to talk about herself or her hometown.

Ayabonga Khaka, is quiet — almost to a fault. Her personality matches that of her hometown. “It’s the life I enjoy. It’s not like Joburg, it’s very quiet. I spend a lot of time at home with my grandmother. After tours, I love going back. It’s a great place to reflect, readjust and refocus. It’s a place where I go to find myself again. It’s home and it made me the person that I am,” she said.

The 32-year-old has built a formidable international CV after more than a decade in the Proteas women’s team. She was there before the team and the sport became professional for women. She played with boys, because that was the only chance she could find to bowl.

Khaka briefly switched to football, playing for Thunderbirds in the Sasol League, but when women cricket turned pro in 2014, she could see a path to forge a career in the sport, although she was careful, adding a degree in human movement science through Fort Hare University. 

“You need to have a back-up in life. You don’t know how long you can play a sport. Sometimes it’s a short career, sometimes a long one if you’re lucky. It’s what I was taught at home — so I had to focus on that,” she said.

She may be naturally shy, but Khaka still bristles at the suggestion that she played second fiddle to the dynamic new ball duo of Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, with whom she shared most of her international career. “I never saw myself as being in anyone’s shadow, that was just my role at that stage,” she said.

“At the time it was simple, I was the first change bowler. I still had a lot of responsibility; if Kappy and Shabnim bowled well, then I had to maintain the standard they set. If they didn’t do well, then I still had to help the team. 

“I did it for a long time, I became used to it and enjoyed it. In this new role I’m still finding my feet, trying to understand this role. But the more I do it, the more I believe I will understand it.”

That new role is opening the bowling, a position that demands more aggression. It may at face value look like an easy transition to make for someone with over 150 international caps and more than 180 wickets to her name — but it is not without its challenges. “You need to strike a lot, whereas previously I had to make sure I had to contain more,” said Khaka.

The new role comes alongside an elevated status as a senior player in a group where Laura Wolvaardt is only now coming to terms with the captaincy, and which still lacks a permanent head coach.

“As a bowling unit, some of us have been together for a long time... we understand each other. There are a lot of youngsters, but I don’t have to teach them, I’m not perfect. If the others see something, they’ll tell me and, that way, we help each other to grow. They learn a lot from me, but I also learn a lot from them.” 

Ahead of her sixth World Cup — her fourth T20 tournament — Khaka believes the sprinkling of youth will energise the elders in the squad, many of whom played in the World Cup final 18 months ago.

“We’d always come up short, but now we know what it is like to be in a final. It was a great experience, but last year hurt a lot. We know our goal as a team. We want to push our own limits. We want to be in those situations, but we want to go beyond those.”