South African wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta revealed the dark times in her life when she was fighting alcoholism and her career was in the doldrums. The 29-year-old said that after taking up alcohol for the first time Northwest University in Potchefstroom, she realised that she faced problems with alcohol.
The issue became grave to the extent that she did not even remember taking part in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. Jafta said that life changed for her after she was dropped from the national team in 2017 and although she returned in 2019, she had lost out on ambition and motivation.
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Hilton Moreeng, the then Proteas coach, and Tshegofatso Gaetsewe, the team doctor, helped Jafta redeem herself by joining the rehabilitation facility in KwaZulu-Natal Midlands in October 2022.
“I entered rehab and that humbled me, but I still didn’t admit that I was an alcoholic. At that point I realised that if I lose my cricket career, so be it … It was my life that I was trying to get back. Whether I had a career coming back, it didn’t matter,” Jafta told ICC.
‘I was very selfish’
Jafta said that people at the rehab centre did not like her, calling her “arrogant, entitled and selfish”. She also faced online trolls and body-shaming that affected her career.
“I think alcohol was killing me at that point if I’m being honest. I was called arrogant, entitled and selfish by the people I stayed with (in rehab), but it wasn’t a malicious point as they cared (for me),” she said.
“But that was what it took, as I look back and I was arrogant, I was very selfish and I was very entitled. I will admit that,” Jafta added.
Jafta made her international debut back in 2016 and has played three Tests, 32 ODIs and 49 T20Is. Currently a part of the South African squad in Women’s T20 World Cup, Jafta has taken 54 catches and affected 11 stumpings.
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