By using insightful social media videos to highlight the achievements of women in cricket, including the Proteas Women’s impressive World Cup campaign culminating in the closely contested final against India on 2 November 2025, content creator Thando Dlamini has successfully built a following and made women’s cricket cool again, particularly for young girls.
Content creation now plays a key role in how sports news is consumed. The increased visibility of women’s sports has benefited from this shift, highlighting their strong performances. Dlamini leverages her marketing background to curate engaging content for her audience.
Dlamini has been working with various women’s cricket teams, including the Proteas women, where she has been handling things on the marketing and content creation side. She shared with gsport that she hopes to pivot from her behind-the-scenes role to being a cricket presenter in the future.
Tell us how your career in media began.
It started with Business Marketing, which sparked a lot of interest in marketing, and prior to that, I didn’t know that everything we see directed to us in commercials, social media, and the news falls into marketing. TuksCricket opened up a position for a Social Media Coordinator, and I took the chance (at the time, I really wanted to work in Sevens Rugby, but knew that getting into sport was important, and then finding my way to Sevens).
In 2022, I started my journey as the club’s SM coordinator and fell in love with the sport and the space, and that opened up so many doors for me. From there, I have worked in different marketing and media spaces with USSA Cricket, Varsity Cricket, Titans Cricket, Pretoria Capitals, and now work with an international digital marketing agency producing cricket content for the global audience and also bespoke content for the South African audience on top of my content creation job.
What is it about being in sports media that makes you excited about doing your job?
The shared goal of the industry: to showcase our athletes in all their moments. Building relationships with players showed me that there’s more to them than what they do on the field; these are people with personalities and lives, and my main job is to showcase that to you and make you fall in love with them the way I do. More recently, meeting the people who work behind the scenes has made me excited.
The Proteas women have been exceptionally well at the World Cup. How has this helped you in your content creation?
My motto when I first started posting about cricket was ‘make women’s cricket cool again, especially for the girls,’ and it still is. The Proteas have given me a chance not only to showcase how amazing their campaign has been, but also allows me to be informative and share women’s cricket outside of just the World Cup.
In creating content about the players and how well they are doing, I’m able to revert back to watching them play live and give a well-rounded image about them. My support for them didn’t start now, but has been there, and every time they play, I want everyone to know, and I’ll record and post and share because they need our support not only on the international stage but when they play every weekend in the summer here in our country.
We have seen a vast improvement in women’s sport in South Africa. As a content creator, how does this help you in your creative process as you make videos?
In sports like cricket, stats are important, and I do a lot of research before I press record because my job is to share well-informed and correct information. Seeing more information shared about the women’s teams makes my job easier.
And the more questions or comments people leave in my videos, the more research I do to answer them. My mind is always buzzing about what I want to share about the women’s game, and being able to share all the improvements, not only in the game but also in the infrastructure, gives me so much joy that creating the content is the easiest part of my process.
Who are some of your favourite female sports content creators?
Madison Moulton (@touchlinemadi) was probably the first creator who propelled me to use my platform to share women’s cricket. Women’s coverage in the country is still very niche, and as someone who actively watches the women’s game, I was inspired.
Even though they are mainly in broadcasting, Carol Tshabalala and Motshidisi Mohono are people I look up to. Lesego Pooe, the mother of cricket, is the first woman in cricket, not playing, that I fell in love with. Danni de Kock (7s rugby), Hannah Perry (NBA), Genesis Cele (rugby), and Ella Ferguson (rugby) make my list.
You also have a background in marketing. How has this helped you in your content creation career?
Marketing teaches you a lot about the voice you are trying to portray, and I’ve used that in creating content. If you ask me what drives my content creation, it’s that I want to be a voice in women’s cricket in education, supporting and understanding the game.
I allow for conversations and disagreements, and being able to show the good and not-so-good parts about the game, and let that do the talking for me most of the time. There’s going to be negativity online, and working in social media marketing has taught me that there are times to talk and times to keep quiet, not everything requires a response, and if you do respond, to be able to stand firm on what you say.
What have been some of your career highlights?
One that stands out, and at the time I didn’t realise how big it was, was working the Proteas Women v England Women match at SuperSport Park in December 2024. I worked marketing for that match and spent the whole morning frantic, but now that I look back, it was such a big day for me.
A month early, I had worked with the Titans Ladies team and many of the Proteas players were there, and it hadn’t clicked to me that these are the same people who will be donning the green and gold in a few weeks’ time, so working with them creating content and then watching them play in national colours was so eye-opening for me. But the one that will always stay in my heart and showed me that working in sport was special was TuksCricket winning five trophies in one season, that was also the year I started taking social media more seriously.
We have seen an increase in women joining sports media, not just on the continent but around the world. As one of these women, how does it make you feel that women are now taking centre stage?
I love it, and more importantly, I love women supporting women, and my community has been so inviting and welcoming and encouraging.
We are seeing growth, but for me it’s not fast enough. The women who broke barriers for us and the ones still doing it will forever hold a place, and they are the reason I have a voice in sport and, more importantly, are paving the way for more women working in women’s sport.
What is your biggest career dream?
I always said working behind the scenes is what I love the most, but more recently, being in front of a camera has given me joy. During the 24/25 domestic season, I set the goal as LA28 and CWC27.
I want to work in broadcasting and be a presenter for women’s cricket but also cricket in South Africa, starting from the women’s domestic Hollywoodbets ProSeries all the way up to international matches and hopefully the upcoming T20 Women’s World Cup in 2026.
gsport has played a major role in elevating women in sport and women’s sport in South Africa and the continent. What do you think of the work they are doing and the impact it has made?
Voices of women in sport can get lost, especially if you’re small and starting up, and gsport amplifies them.
To see so many women working in sport has been eye-opening. You don’t really know how many there are until you enter the industry and see that they form part of many organisations’ backbones, and you start being amazed. I’ve met so many amazing women in sport and still hope to meet more, and gsport has made them all so accessible that I am always inspired by the work being done, and it pushes me to do better and one day be one of the inspiring and impactful women in sport.
Main Photo Caption: By using insightful social media videos to highlight the achievements of women in cricket, including the Proteas Women’s impressive World Cup campaign culminating in the closely contested final against India, content creator Thando Dlamini has successfully built a following and made women’s cricket cool again. All Photos: Supplied
Photo 2 Caption: From a club Social Media Coordinator position at TuksCricket in 2022 to working with the Proteas women and a global digital marketing agency—Thando Dlamini’s journey is proof that taking a chance pays off!
Photo 3 Caption: Content creation isn’t just about the highlights! Thando Dlamini shares her main job is to showcase the personalities and lives of the athletes, making you fall in love with them on and off the field.
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
You need to be a registered member to rate this.
Loading…
This post cannot be restored anymore.
