Coming May is going to witness the birth of another T20 tournament which claims to be unique as it is going to host women cricketers from as many as 35 countries. The global T20 event is slated from 1 to 15 May in Dubai and will house famed cricketers including Suzie Bates, Stefanie Taylor among others.
However, Indian stars Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma among others are expected to give the tournament a miss as BCCI is reportedly unwilling to give them clearance.
Who is organising the tournament and what is its format?
The inaugural women’s T20 event is an invitational tournament that is being organised by Cricket Hong Kong and Fairbreak Global, an Australia-based global gender equality initiative, read a report by espncricinfo. The privately-funded tournament, named Fairbreak Invitational 2022, was announced last year and is approved by International Cricket Council (ICC). It will follow a six-team format with 19 matches in total, with the matches being granted international status.
The inaugural tournament was earlier set to be held in Hong Kong but was shifted to Dubai over COVID-19 concerns. Hong Kong will continue to be the host of the event despite the change of venue.
What are the teams and their squad?
While the complete list of the team names and squads is yet to be out, as many as 90 players have been roped in for the tournament. 40 of the players come from full-member countries while the remaining come from the associate nations.
It is not yet certain how the players will be allocated into the teams but it is confirmed that no auction or draft will take place to determine that. Three of the teams have been finalised already and their squads namely are:
South Coast Sapphires: Sana Mir (captain), Chamari Athapaththu, Shabnim Ismail, Kim Garth (Ireland), Jemimah Rodrigues, Gaby Lewis (Ireland), Betty Chan (Hong Kong), Geetika Kodali (USA), Jade Allen, Shebani Bhaskar (USA) and Babette de Leede (Netherlands)
The Barmy Army Team: Selina Solman (Vanuatu), Deandra Dottin, Henriette Ishimwe (Rwanda), Kavisha Kumari (UAE), Shemaine Campbelle, Iqra Sahar (Hong Kong), Fatima Sana, Rumana Ahmed, Laura Cardoso (Brazi), Roberta Avery (Brazil), Rubina Chhetri (Nepal) and Ruchi Venkatesh (Hong Kong)
The Tornedos: Stephanie Taylor (Captain), Andrea-Mae Zepeda (Austria), Sita Rana Magar (Nepal), Sophie Devine, Sune Luus, Katey Martin, Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Chanida Suthhiruang (Thailand), Mary-Anne Musonda, Natasha Miles (Hong Kong), Sterre Kalis (Netherlands), Winifred Duraisingam (Malaysia), Divya Saxena (Canada) and Maryam Bibi (Hong Kong)
Who are the Indian players who wanted to participate in the tournament?
As many as five Indian players had signed contracts with Fairbreak last year and they were Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, and Jemima Rodrigues.
Why BCCI isn’t give them clearance?
While BCCI is yet to officially confirm the development, several media reports have cited that the Indian board has already denied the five players and a match referee — Anju Jain — issuance of no-objection certificates. The reason behind the denial has been cited as the domestic Women’s T20 league that starts on 15 April and carries on till 5 May in Nagpur. Reports added that BCCI wanted all women cricketers to be available for the domestic tournament as it’s the basis for the qualification for the 2023 T20 World Cup in February in South Africa.
The global tournament’s organisers haven’t made an official statement on the non-participant of the Indian players but were reported to be disappointed as they felt Indian players could have been made available for the knockout phases of the tournament.
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