Tazmin Brits’ mother diagnosed with breast cancer weeks before T20 World Cup

South African opening batter Tazmin Brits will play the T20 World Cup for something much bigger than the game; she will play for her mom.

Zeldine is a fixture on the sidelines of South Africa’s games and was due to travel to the tournament to support her daughter, but will not make the trip as she is currently receiving treatment for breast cancer.

“My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer just two weeks ago, so it continues,” Brits told ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast. “Struggle never ends. But now I know how to handle it. And now I know that you’ve got to keep moving. If you stand still, the world will swallow you in. You’ve got to keep moving.”

Her mother’s illness comes on the back of difficult times for Brits, who lost her father to Covid-19 in March 2021 and was seriously injured in a car accident in 2011, after which she contemplated taking her own life. At the time, Brits was a javelin thrower, set for the 2012 London Olympic Games, but the crash left her with a broken pelvis, burst bladder and dislocated hip.

She was told it would take a year to walk normally again, but was running after seven months, and while she worked jobs as a waitress and at a grocery store, with the support of her family, Brits managed to return to the thing that “feeds my soul” – sport.

At first, Brits tried to make a comeback in javelin and played cricket socially until she realised she was pretty good at it. Then, she made the switch.

“Let’s be honest, cricket and sports are fun, but it’s more fun when you win,” she said. “When I was playing cricket and scoring the runs, and I could see that I’m actually capable of doing this and that I can make a career out of it, I enjoyed it.

“I think that automatically made me change my whole entire mindset. If I was still playing sports and not getting anywhere, I think it would have been a difficult situation to get out of at the end of the day.”

Just a few months after making the North West provincial side, Brits was selected for the national team, which had the likes of Lizelle Lee and Dane van Niekerk in the line-up.

Since both retired, Brits has had the regularity of game time and clarity of role at the top of the order to make the spot her own and the last 12 months have been her best. In ODIs, she scored her first and second century against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively, in T20Is, she has scored five of her 12 fifties and in domestic T20s, she notched up a maiden hundred.

Asked what she puts this purple patch down to, Brits didn’t quite know. “I can’t even answer that for you. I pretty much just go there and see ball, hit ball,” she said. “I feel like I’m almost Quinton de Kock. If you see a bat, you pick it up, if it feels good, you go with it. I don’t do stats and specs and I’m not one of those bookworms. I’m more like a street smart person.”

But there is more to it than fortune. For one, Brits has put a focus on strike rate, with the knowledge that she needs to improve on that if she hopes to get a spot in one of the big leagues such as the WPL, WBBL or the Hundred.

“I have realised that people don’t always care about the 50s, they want 40 off 20 balls,” she said. “They want that strike rate to be over 140 and I’m trying to get it to that.”

Her overall T20 strike rate is 114.25 but since last September, that has improved to 129.25, which points to her plans working. And she has others.

Her Olympic dream lives on, with the rings tattooed on her bicep and ideas of LA 2028 firmly in her mind. She hopes cricket’s arrival at the games will also help to broaden the sport’s reach.

“I’m hoping with the Olympics, they make it broader and teams like Namibia or Zimbabwe can get in, and they add an extra few teams,” Brits said. “As a country that’s maybe a bit smaller, to get into the World Cup is not always easy. That’s why I’m so happy for Scotland who are coming to the World Cup now. I’m hoping the Olympics allows that because that will automatically also grow cricket.”

Between now and then, there are three World Cups – T20 events in 2024 and 2026 and a fifty-over tournament in 2025 – and though an Olympic medal will be nice, Brits also has her heart set on a World Cup.

“For our country, winning the World Cup will be a massive thing,” she said. “I actually get a bit of goosebumps if I think about it. It can definitely change our nation.”

As someone who enjoys signs and symbols, Brits has promised to get the World Cup trophy inked on her body if South Africa win, and half of it if they get to the semi-finals. “We’d better win because I can’t walk around with a half a tattoo,” she said.

At least she can be fairly sure she will be able to complete her other big gesture – the ballerina celebration which comes out for batting milestones. She and team-mate Masabata Klaas‘s daughter came up with it and Brits and does it “in remembrance of my dad”.

There could be one more. October, the month the T20 World Cup will be played, is also breast cancer awareness month around the world and this year it will have special significance for Brits, whose thoughts will be with her mom. “My mom’s pretty tough,” she said. “I think that’s where I get it from.”