Marizanne Kapp prepares to lead from front as South Africa enter new era

The past year has been quite the emotional rollercoaster for women’s cricket in South Africa.

Mignon du Preez and most recently Shabnim Ismail added to the list of international retirements, breaking a core of players that built the backbone of their side for more than a decade.

Throughout it all, talismanic all-rounder Marizanne Kapp has stood firm, and remains motivated to guide the young team through its transition.

“The past year has been really hard,” 33-year-old Kapp told BBC Sport.

“We started this journey together, and it did make the World Cup a bit harder for me personally because those players were the ones that built us up over 14 years to get to a place where we could reach a World Cup final.

“I learned to love them as…