Mignon du Preez gets historic honour at Centurion
The contribution of du Preez, the South Africa Women batter and former captain, to the sport has been recognised, with the gates named after her unveiled on Friday, 22 March, ahead of the second Twenty20 International between South Africa and Sri Lanka.
Du Preez, 29, began her career at Northerns Cricket Union (NCU) 20 years ago. She has since gone on to feature in 208 internationals, and is the leading run-scorer in one-day internationals for South Africa Women, having made 3058 runs. She also led them to the semi-final of the ICC Women's World T20 2014 – their best performance at the event.
Brilliant stuff by Northerns Cricket Union who unveiled the @MdpMinx22 gate at @SuperSportPark today &who also unveiled her place in the Wall of Fame! Wonderful to see such excellent recognition of one of women’s cricket’s hardest working & longest serving players. #AlwaysRising pic.twitter.com/bUkvRsA5tS
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) March 22, 2019
"I am lost for words," du Preez said at the unveiling. "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine something would be named in my honour and to have it at a stadium like SuperSport Park, that I've seen as my 'home ground' since I fell in love with cricket as a four-year-old, is truly special."
Jacques Faul, SuperSport Park CEO, said: “It’s the first time SuperSport Park has named a gate in honour of a player. It’s fitting that a gate should be named after Mignon.
"She plied her trade at the Union and captained South Africa. She was one of the first professional female cricketers, a great player, an ambassador of the game and a wonderful person. SuperSport Park is privileged to honour her.”