Women’s cricket is set to make its way to the Commonwealth Games happening next year in Birmingham with the shortest format of the game. Following the ICC World Cup taking place in March next year, these games would be the next major event for women’s cricket for the year.
As the excitement builds up with the World Cup Qualifiers this month to fill the remaining 3 spots and the commonwealth qualifiers for the one remaining spot early next year, the Commonwealth games organizers have released the schedule for the T20 matches which will be played from July 29 at the Edgbaston Stadium.
The games start with the women’s cricket rivals India and Australia playing against each other and we all saw what a nail-biting match these two teams brought during the recently concluded series between the two.
#ICYMI The first women’s cricket match on the 2022 CWG schedule will see Australia take on India in the early session on July 29 followed by Pakistan playing Barbados.#CWG22 pic.twitter.com/o44c6dqIfy
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 12, 2021
Parallel to them, Pakistan would take on Barbados, a team from West Indies as WI is represented by the group of nations separately at the games. The host nation England would play their first match on July 30 against the winner of the Qualifiers. We will also be witnessing the match which is surely the greatest rivalry. India and Pakistan playing against each other. We already saw the hype it received when the two teams competed just last month in the Men’s T20 World Cup. The semi-finals will be played on August 6 followed by the bronze and gold medal match on August 7.
31st July, 2022
Mark the date! 😃#INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/G4kFgY4Asp
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) November 13, 2021
As per a report by the England cricket board, ecb.co.uk, the sale of tickets for women’s sports has been quite rapid and with the schedule announced now, the numbers are sure to go up.
In the same report Geoff Allardice, the ICC Acting Chief Executive has said: “We have seen tremendous growth of the women’s game over the past few years and the Commonwealth Games will undoubtedly be another major moment on that journey. Today’s announcement of the match schedule gives fans lots to look forward to, not least with the opening game between ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 finalists Australia and India and we know that Edgbaston will provide a great stage for the competition.”
He further went on thanking ICC saying, “On behalf of the ICC and our Members, I would like to thank the Commonwealth Games Federation for all the support and look forward to some exciting cricket in Birmingham 2022.”
Check out the schedule below:
Group A:
Australia
Barbados
India
Pakistan
Schedule-
| Date | Match |
| 29th July | Australia v India |
| 29th July | Barbados v Pakistan |
| 31st July | India v Pakistan |
| 31st July | Australia v Barbados |
| 3rd August | Australia v Pakistan |
| 3rd August | Barbados v India |
Group B-
England
New Zealand
South Africa
TBC (based on Qualifiers)
Schedule-:
| Date | Match |
| 30th July | New Zealand v South Africa |
| 30th July | England v TBC |
| 2nd August | England v South Africa |
| 2nd August | New Zealand v TBC |
| 4th August | South Africa v TBC |
| 4th August | England v New Zealand |
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