The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has refused permission to five of its top women cricketers to play in the Global Women’s T20 Invitational tournament to be held in Dubai from May 1 to 15, 2022. The tournament is being organized by Cricket Hong Kong and Australia’s Frerebreak Global as part of the Global Gender Equality Initiative. The BCCI’s reasoning behind not allowing its top five women cricketers to take part in the tournament is that the dates of the competition are clashing with the last leg of the domestic women’s T20 tournament.
According to the news of Times of India, the BCCI has refused to issue No Objection Certificate to 5 Indian players (Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma and Jemima Rodrigues) who had played in the last year. The contract was signed to participate in this tournament. The event will begin on May 1, while the BCCI’s domestic Women’s Inter-State Championship will begin in Nagpur from April 18 and the knockout matches will begin on May 1.
The BCCI feels it is important for all Indian women cricketers to play in the domestic T20 tournament as it is the foundation of the 2023 World T20 to be held in South Africa in February. The BCCI also wants its players to be available for the Women’s T20 Challenge, which is to be played from May 24.
BCCI has also refused NOC to GS Lakshmi for this tournament to be held in Dubai. GS Lakshmi was the match referee during the Women’s World Cup final between England and Australia in New Zealand on 3 April. It is believed that Lakshmi will have to play the role of match referee in the domestic women’s T20 championship.
reminiscenceThe organizers of the tournament are disappointed with veteran Indian players like Harmanpreet Kaur not taking part. He says, ‘ICC has approved this tournament. Its matches have been given international status. India is the only country that will no longer be represented in this tournament. If we look at the dates, there is no clear clash between the two tournaments. Out of the five Indian cricketers, some will be free before the knockouts, while others could be included later (in the domestic T20 tournament).
He said, ‘This Tournament Women’s T20 Challengers to be held at least a week after In Dubai, 90 women cricketers from 36 countries will be seen playing for 6 teams. There are 15 players in each team. Of these, 40 cricketers are from Test playing countries. At the same time, 50 are from allied countries, that is, from non-Test playing countries. This is a great opportunity for the women cricketers from the associate teams to learn from their role models. It is a pity that those cricketers were not given a chance to live their dream and learn things from the women cricketers of India.