The many battles of Tazmin Brits

Fighting all odds, opener has scored record 5 hundreds this year, going past Meg Lanning to become fastest to hit 7 ODI tons

- - GOMESH S@Chennai

"THERE was a time when I actually wanted to retire." Tazmin Brits makes a passing reference to a period of her life where she wanted to leave the sport that became her second love; javelin throw was her first. After winning the World Youth Championships at 16, a life-threatening car crash put the brakes on her Olympic dream before she eventually took up cricket. The rather challenging phase that the 34year-old was referring to was only three years ago.

It was 2022, and Brits had just come back from her first World Cup experience in New Zealand. Even though South Africa reached yet another semifinal before losing to Australia, the then 31-year-old had a tournament to forget. She made 51 runs in five games, averaging 10.4. And with Dane van Niekerk the regular skipper at the time who had missed the tournament due to injury and Lizelle Lee still being a part of the starting XI, Brits was not a regular.

That, and her poor run in the World Cup took a toll on her.

"That was my first World Cup in general and then my first ODI World Cup. And then the likes of Lizelle and Dane were still in the team. And of course, I wasn't getting a lot of game time. I was just like, 'they're still young. How long is this going to go on? Am I going to sit on the side the whole time?' It's almost like you feel you don't want to just travel just to travel.

You want to play cricket at the end of the day because that's what you love. So, 2022, that's when, after that World Cup, I was like maybe I should retire," Brits recalls.