Johannesburg – 3 October 2025:
Our Lions look to win a trophy every year under new coach Sandile. Our DP World Lions ladies team head into the 2025/26 season with a new coach in Sandile Masengemi, who says the squad is aiming to win a trophy every year.
The Dolphins are our first opposition as they travel to the DP World Wanderers Stadium for a Pro50 match on Saturday and a T20 clash on Sunday.
Masengemi was the DP World Lions assistant coach last season, but has now taken the reins from Shaun Pretorius, who has moved into a key role in pipeline development. Pretorius left the head coach role on a high note by winning the Pro50 Series title, and it was a vital victory over a highflying Dolphins side at the DP World Wanderers Stadium back in March that helped them to the trophy.
The core of that team will be in action on Saturday and Sunday, even though #ThePrideOfJozi have six players away with the Proteas at the Women’s World Cup, a sizeable contingent that makes the union extremely proud.
Masengemi says he is comfortable with the pre-season work that the team has done.
“It’s been hard work and I’ve looked to challenge the ladies. We’ve had good preparation with a couple of warm-up games against Thailand, the Titans and North-West. There’s a certain brand of cricket we want to play, definitely positive, and we’ve got the blueprint.
“We should win a competition every year and I’ve been able to get buy-in from the players for that. The Dolphins are a very good, well-coached team and it’s going to be a tough tussle, but we’ve covered most things in our prep and I’m happy with the way the players have zoned in. We know how we want to go about things, we have clear KPIs,” Masengemi said.
The 41-year-old Masengemi is a home-grown Lions man, being born in Kagiso, and played for Gauteng in the 2001/02-2002/03 seasons as a wicketkeeper/batsman. But society was different in those days and he gave up local cricket.
“I played in an era when the transition was still new and it felt like there was a presumption that I was in the team because of my skin colour. So I lost my love of the game here and went and played in England, where I started being a player/coach.
“That’s when I really started developing my interest in coaching and I came back here in 2010. My coaching philosophy is very simple: players are allowed to be themselves and it’s the environment around the team that creates the spirit. It’s not my team, it’s all of our’s team,” Masengemi said.
According to Masengemi, three players were not considered for selection in Refilwe Moncho, Lehlohonelo Meso and Lethabo Bidli, due to injuries.
But Proteas legend Shabnim Ismail will look to lay down the law with the ball, while there is experienced batting in the form of Sunette Viljoen-Louw and Nokhululeko Thabethe, alongside exciting young talent like Fay Cowling and Jenna Evans.
Things did not all go according to plan for the DP World Lions in the Pro20 competition last season, which is why Masengemi is looking for greater intent in the shortest format.
Squad: Kgomotso Rapoo, Raisibe Ntozakhe, Shabnim Ismail, Razeena Manack, Diara Ramlakan, Sarah Nettleton, Madison Landsman, Relebohile Mkhize, Sunette Viljoen-Louw, Nonkhululeko Thabethe, Fay Cowling, Jenna Evans, Neo Molefe, Leani Swanepoel.