Luus cleared for T20 World Cup take-off, but not her parents

Sune Luus will hope her T20 World Cup improves. "My parents have just missed their flight," South Africa's captain said on Thursday, the eve of the tournament opener against Sri Lanka at Newlands. "They'd already checked in and had breakfast, and just missed the boarding time. Hopefully, they make it for the first game to be here and support me."

They should. Dozens of flights to Cape Town from Johannesburg, where Cecile and Braam Luus spent more time than planned at the airport, were scheduled for Thursday and Friday, and the match won't start before 7pm (local time).

But, with a major assignment looming, Luus didn't need parental problems added to her load. "If you sit down and think about all the things that are happening around you and the amount of pressure and the big occasion, you will put yourself under a lot of pressure and that might not go down so well. So I'm trying to focus on the game tomorrow evening and on cricket, and on my plans and what I need to do to execute and lead the team to victory."

Among the things that have happened around Luus is the controversial omission of Dane van Niekerk from South Africa's squad over a failed fitness test. Luus has deputised for Van Niekerk since January, when the regular captain fractured an ankle in a fall at her home.

"It's always difficult being a stand-in captain," Luus said. "You're always one foot in, one foot out. But as I grew up I was always a leader at some stage in whatever team I played for. Leadership qualities came naturally to me. It's a role I would like to grow into. Every game you play you get more accustomed to your teammates and what they want and need. The older I get the more I understand there's a lot of work that needs to get done."

Luus captained provincial under-19 and senior teams before she took charge of South Africa for the first time, in an ODI against India in Potchefstroom in May 2017. By then she had played at the international level for almost five years and earned 83 white-ball caps. The South Africans have won 19 of the 34 ODIs they have played under her leadership and 14 of 28 T20Is.

Being appointed captain for the T20 World Cup solidified her position: "It makes my job easier, to take control and stamp my authority on things and how I would like to go about things. It comes with a new dimension. It brings new challenges and difficulties, but it's a challenge I'm willing to take on and accept and grow in that role."

How would she assess her captaincy? "I'd like to think I'm very calm and collected on the field. Some people might say I'm too chilled, but in difficult times that's what a team needs. You don't want someone who's frantic and doesn't know what's happening. Bringing composure to a team when things aren't going well is an important quality to have."

South Africa haven't hosted a global tournament since the inaugural men's World T20 in September 2007. They have reached the semi-finals in three of their seven ODI World Cup campaigns and in two of their seven World T20s. They have never been further.

But that wasn't all that mattered for Luus: "I don't think we quite realise what we have already achieved without playing a game. Apart from being successful and winning games, there's a responsibility for inspiring a nation and inspiring young girls to get out of their comfort zones and to imagine a career where they can do anything. That's one of our biggest roles as a team."

Luus' earliest inspiration had come from her father, a junior cricket coach, who began encouraging her to play when she was a small child. Her news that she would captain South Africa at a World Cup landed like a lump in the throat: "The moment I phoned my dad to tell him he started crying. He was so proud."

It was not the final call for Cecile and Braam Luus. Happily, there will be more.