14-year-old Westerford girl set to make history in all boys first XI

Young cricketer Sofia Beires is set to shatter a glass ceiling on Saturday when she makes her debut for the all-boys Westerford High School U19 First XI against Fairmont High School.

Beires, a Grade 9 learner, is only 14 years old, who has previously represented both the KwaZulu-Natal Girls u13 and Western Province u16 Girls teams. 

Beires is a cricket fanatic that has played the game since nine years old. 

“I’ve always had an interest in cricket since young,” she told Independent Media. 

“I think I just had enough of netball and thought I'd give cricket a go, and it stuck. 

“I’ve watched cricket my whole life. My family always had cricket on the television and my uncle used to play cricket.”

Women’s cricket has grown from strength to strength in recent years, starting with the Proteas Women’s team becoming the first senior South African team to reach an ICC T20 World Cup final on a historic day at Newlands in 2023. 

Laura Wolvaaadt’s team repeated the act last year when the Proteas reached a consecutive T20 World Cup final in Dubai.

These achievements have led to the professionalisation of the women’s game with Cricket SA launching the Hollywoodbets Pro50 and Hollywoodbets Pro20 Series.

This has filtered down to the youth ranks with the South Africa U19 Women’s team also progressing to the ICC U19 Women’s World Cup final in Malaysia last month. 

Beires is excited by the developments in the women’s game and hopes to follow in the footsteps of her heroes former Proteas fast bowler Shabnim Ismail, Wolvaardt and star allrounder Marizanne Kapp.

However, she doesn’t want to lose focus on firstly playing well in her First XI debut on Saturday, especially as playing against boys much older than her will provide a stiff challenge.

“I think in the last few seasons at Westerford, I took four wickets against Fairmont, and I've opened the batting quite often for the under-15 side and under-14 side. 

“And with a lot of players' shuffles and everything, I think they saw that I could get an opportunity to play. 

“I would like to try to see how far I could go. It would be amazing to play international cricket. But we'll just see where it takes me, I guess, and just keep on working hard.”

Westerford Director of Sport Liam Dugmore believes that Beires’ high work ethic will ensure the teenager has a bright future in the game.

“She’s always played boys cricket,” Dugmore said. “She normally plays for the u17 boys team and we felt that she deserved a callup. 

“She’s such a great kid. Ambitious in the classroom. Raised really well. 

“She always goes out there to compete and doesn’t stand back to any of the boys.”

Westerford High School's most renowned cricket alumnus is former Proteas Men's allrounder Farhaan Behardien, who played 97 international matches across formats.