The issue came to a head when Lee was required to complete a fitness test before the team left South Africa. She asked to do it in her parents’ hometown of Ermelo, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, rather than at her provincial base, North-West, or CSA headquarters in Johannesburg, due to cost. From the trip. Lee weighed himself and sent the results to the team’s athletic trainer, who told him that she needed to have her skinfold measured as well. Lee visited a biokineticist in Ermelo for that test later that day, but she didn’t reweigh because she “fluctuates and the margins are small,” she said on the podcast. “I’m not going to do it again because if it ends [the limit] I won’t be eligible for the England tour.” She told the biokinetic that she had recorded her weight herself.
She was subsequently selected for the tour and re-tested upon arrival in England in early July, where, according to Lee, “her skin folds were down, but the weight wasn’t even close to where I thought it would be.” “.
“We have to make sure, especially with women, that the things that really count have to count more, like running and skills, all those things that really contribute to winning rather than how people look.”
Lizelle Lee
CSA asked Lee for an explanation and stated that the biokineticist had not checked Lee’s weight. In an email to CSA staff on July 5, Lee said he knew he should have had his weight re-measured, but didn’t, “because I was afraid it might differ from the morning, which could result in me not being selected. ” and she admitted “that was wrong and that I should have done it there”.
The next day, July 6, Lee was informed via email that she would be removed from the team. In a communication between the CSA and Lee, seen by ESPNcricinfo, the CSA also said it would exercise its right to retain an NOC from participating in leagues until it “meets and maintains workload and fitness requirements.” The CSA has since confirmed that it is confident that Lee could use the six to eight weeks away from the national team in June and July before The Hundred to meet the requirements if she returns home. They were also concerned about her form and hoped that she could work on it as well while she was home. Before the tour, Lee had played seven ODIs in 2022 and scored 81 runs at an average of 11.57, including five single-figure hits.
However, Lee was concerned that she might not get an NOC in time for The Hundred, which would have considerable financial implications, especially since she had just become a mother. “It was a lot of money,” she said. “We needed it. We are a young family. So I said I would retire.”
Through the CSA, she initially released a statement saying she was ready to focus on the next phase of her career but, days later, tweeted that national coach Hilton Moreeng was aware of the CSA’s intention to deny her the NOC. That was in response to Moreeng saying at a press conference that he was unaware of Lee’s situation.
Lee accused CSA of not offering her any resources to help her lose weight. “I never got any support from the CSA with that,” she said. “I’ve never been asked ‘what do you need, what can we do to help you lose weight.’ That’s something I’ve had to do on my own.” CSA has denied that claim.
Lee acknowledged that CSA was “within its right to do that [withhold the NOC] and that’s 100% fine,” but he criticized his fitness requirements. He said that bracketing an athlete’s ability to run along with skinfolds and weight is not a true measure of cricketing ability and he would prefer that the cardiovascular and body composition components are separated.
“I understand the race, if you don’t race they don’t see you fit enough to play, which I think is probably fine,” he said. “The biggest thing that got me is that I got physically fit, I ran what I needed to do. Basically, I’m fit to play, and I had this conversation with them before Ireland because they dropped me in Ireland because of my weight as well. , and I told them ‘you are lowering me because of my appearance and how much I weigh’ and they said ‘no, we are going to lower them because they failed in the fitness battery’.
“I said ‘yeah, but if you break the fitness battery, what didn’t I do? I did the fitness, the run, but not the weight. So you’re letting me down because of the weight.’ So as a woman, that breaks me.” .
Lee’s gender is the reason CSA did not make these details public, with several officials citing an understanding of the sensitivity of body image issues faced by women as a reason for keeping the matter private.
In early 2020, CSA held a conditioning camp for Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, JJ Smuts and Sisanda Magala targeting, among other things, their weight. At the end of camp, all four players took physicals and Magala was the only one who didn’t pass. She subsequently dropped out of an ODI team to play for England and her challenges have been well documented. Magala, despite being the wicket-taking leader in the national one-day cup in the 2021-22 season, will remain unavailable for the national team until he meets the fitness requirements.
Lee called for a complete overhaul of the fitness testing process, especially for women. “We have to make sure, especially with women, that the things that really count have to count more, like running and skills, all those things that really contribute to winning rather than how people look.”
Firdose Moonda is a correspondent for ESPNcricinfo in South Africa.
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