Irene van Dyk

Who is Irene van Dyk?

Irene van Dyk MNZM is a South African–born New Zealand netball player. She is one of the world's best-known netball players and the most capped international player of all time.

She formerly captained the South African national netball team, representing them a total of 72 times, but moved to New Zealand in 2000 where she plays for the national team, the Silver Ferns. She became a citizen of New Zealand in 2005. She won the Halberg award as the New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year in 2003 and was again nominated in 2005.

Her move to New Zealand and almost immediate placement in their national team caused some minor controversy, as the only rule in netball at the time for players switching between nations was a ban on playing for more than one nation in a calendar year.

She lives in Wellington, but played for the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic in the National Bank Cup, New Zealand's former domestic netball competition which ended in 2007. She plays for the same team in the ANZ Championship which replaced the National Bank Cup in 2008. She is a primary school teacher, and has one daughter named Bianca with her husband, Christie. Irene van Dyk is a Christian and supported the "Lifeathon" fund-raising event for Christian music radio network Life FM.