In a conversation with Mr. Vijay Lokapally from Sportstar, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly opened up about the upcoming plans for the Women in Blue.
Indian women’s team played their international game of cricket after almost a year when they hosted the Proteas women at Lucknow’s Ekana stadium for a 5-match ODI and a 3-match T20I series. With no international matches been played for a year, the Indian women cricketers had only played 2-3 matches in the Challenger Trophy which happened at Sharjah, UAE.
President Sourav Ganguly talking about Indian women’s cricket said that people’s perception that the BCCI isn’t promoting women’s cricket was wrong. He said – “What to do? We have been living with this deadly virus. Other than the men’s cricket, we had the women’s IPL. South Africa women played here.”
Indian women’s team led by Mithali Raj (ODI) and Harmanpreet Kaur (T20I) will tour England between June-July. The one-off Test match will be played from June 16-June 19 followed by a three-match ODI series from June 27-July 3. The tour will end with a three-match T20I series from July 9 to July 15.
Post the England tour, Team India women will fly to Australia in the month of September for their next tour. After playing the Aussies, the women in blue will be welcoming the West Indies women in India during November for a limited-over series. And to start off their new year, Indian women will tour New Zealand for a Tri-Series, just before the Women’s World Cup 2022.
Talking about India’s schedule for the year, Ganguly said – “Our women are going to play Test cricket after eight years. They play a Test in Bristol and six ODIs and T20Is. Would you still accuse me of not supporting women’s cricket? West Indies will come and play in India.”
Five Indian women cricketers have been granted No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) so as to allow their participation in a one of its kind competition – The Hundred. The tournament is set to begin from July 21 with 8 teams participating in total, and the first game of the inaugural tournament being played by the women.
India T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, deputy Smriti Mandhana, all-rounder Deepti Sharma, star player Jemimah Rodrigues and women’s cricket sensation Shafali Verma will be seen playing at The Hundred for Manchester Originals, Southern Brave, London Spirit, Northern Superchargers, and Birmingham Phoenix respectively.
“There is a lot of women’s cricket happening. We had to cancel the women’s IPL and schedule it for September-October. Now the women’s team is leaving for England on June 2. They have a lot of cricket there. They have got England, Australia. Then South Africa comes here. Some of them are playing 100-ball cricket in England. Some are playing the Big Bash in Australia. Then they go to New Zealand for a series, and then they play the World Cup,” Ganguly added while talking about the team’s schedule.
The rising cases of COVID-19 in the second wave in the country have led to the postponement of the Women’s Challenger Trophy. Flight bans and restrictions are being imposed by other countries for the people of India. Amid such a crisis, it wasn’t possible to host the women’s league.
(Credits: Mr. Vijay Lokapally, Sportstar)
I’m a Senior Masters student pursuing Journalism and Mass Communication. An all time Cricket enthusiast. I could never play the game but always loved watching it, and now writing about it!