SA announce women's training squad

All 15 players of South Africa's victorious women's World Cup qualifiers squad have been included in the 18-member training squad announced ahead of the team's tour of England and Ireland. Alexis le Brenton, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnin Ismail are the three in the squad who were not part of South Africa's qualifiers campaign.

A final 14 will be picked from the camp scheduled between May 23 and 25. At the end of July South Africa will travel to Ireland for a one-dayer, and then head to England in August for five ODIs and three Twenty20 matches.

Kerri Laing, the president of the women's cricket committee, said the tour would help South Africa improve their skills and ability to compete at a higher level.

"It's ideal preparation for us to play against one of the top four countries in the world to give us the necessary competition," Laing said. "With the World Cup in mind, so much work still needs to be done and this tour will give us a hint of how far we still need to travel in achieving the required level of readiness."

Training squad:
Cri-Zelda Brits (capt), Claire Terblanche, Olivia Anderson, Susan Benade, Trisha Chetty (wk), Dinesha Devnarain, Mignon du Preez, Shandre Fritz, Shabnin Ismail, Marizanne Kapp, Ashlyn Kilowan, Alexis le Breton, Marcia Letsoalo, Sunette Loubser, Annelie Minnie, Alicia Smith, Daleen Terblanche, Charlize van der Westhuizen.