Marizanne Kapp out of Commonwealth Games after returning home for family reasons

Kapp returned to South Africa ahead of the T20I series against England and will not re-join the Proteas ahead of the tournament

South Africa allrounder Marizanne Kapp will not feature in the Commonwealth Games after returning home from the series against England for family reasons.

Kapp was a bright spark in an otherwise disappointing tour for the Proteas, who were beaten in all six white-ball matches and drew the one-off Test.

Kapp's wife, Dane van Niekerk, is South Africa's captain but has been missing from international action since suffering an ankle injury at the start of the year. She was ruled out of the World Cup, this series and the Commonwealth Games, which follow at the end of July.

Van Niekerk released a statement on Instagram ahead of the first match in the T20I series last Thursday, explaining that Kapp's brother-in-law was in hospital "with burn wounds to his hands and face".

She added: "It has been incredibly traumatic for Marizanne's youngest sister (his wife) and his/our whole family. People that question Marizanne's commitment to the team should understand that family comes first, always. She played (a Test and ODIs) through her npehw being ill and her niece being very ill as well."

A statement from Cricket South Africa explained that Kapp had "requested to travel back home to Gqeberha to be close to her family during this trying time".

Kapp's loss for the Games is a major blow to Sune Luus' side, which is already missing the experience of van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee, who retired from international cricket in mysterious circumstances following the Test. Luus was also absent from the final T20I of the series due to illness, while Shabnim Ismail – who was ruled out of the Test and first ODI with a calf problem – also missed the series' last instalment. Mignon du Preez has at least returned to the fold; she has retired from Test and ODI cricket but still plays T20Is.

^{Kapp's absence leaves a huge hole in South Africa's line-up (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)}

Tazmin Brits, who was called up to replace Kapp, made a half century in the defeat at Derby that ended the series.

"It's sport, these kinds of things happen," said South Africa head coach Hilton Moreeng, regarding the absences of several key players.

"Sometimes you have plans as a team, as coaches, as an organisation. Players feel on a certain day that they've had enough; you have to respect that and celebrate the time that they had with you because they were incredible cricketers.

"These kinds of things happen because when you look at where they are in their lives, they have to make at times decisions that are good for them as people first before anything else. We respect their decisions.

"As a generation, they played extremely good cricket from where they started and they raised the bar very well and very high in the country for youngsters to look up to them and to want to emulate what they did. But we also realise that it's going to take time. You've started seeing the retirements coming, the challenges that they pick up, growing up, life after cricket is starting to happen for most of them."

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