T20 tournaments giving local players a chance to shine alongside established cricket stars
There is so much cricket being played at the professional and international level at the moment that one of the aims of the International Cricket Council is to grow the game around the world. Opportunities to play on the world stage are now being offered to players who could only dream about it a few years back.
This is true for the UAE male cricketers who are playing in the DPO World ILT20. Each of the six teams has been allocated four UAE players, of whom two should be selected for the playing 11. The experience of playing alongside some of the best cricketers in the world will be invaluable to his development.
Rohan Mustafa opening the batting for the Desert Vipers alongside Englishman Alex Hales sees him score 418 runs in five matches, almost twice as many as anyone else.
Mustafa is an experienced cricketer at the age of 33 and has not much to learn compared to Vritya Aravind who is 20 years old and playing for MI Emirates alongside Muhammad Wasim. The latter made impressive starts with scores of 71 and 40 in his first two innings, but posted low scores in his next three innings. Arvind has made only one start so far.
Reliable bowling performance by UAE players. Akif Raja has played all five matches for Dubai Capitals, picking up six wickets, including his second with the ball in a tournament.
Junaid Siddiqui has played five matches for Sharjah Warriors, taking six wickets at an economical rate. However, the most eye-catching performance was that of Sanchi Sharma. He has taken six wickets for the Gulf Giants, three of which have come against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, whose numbers two, three and four batsmen were his victims, which was enough to earn him player of the match.
The DP World IT20 reached its halfway stage of 30 round-robin matches on 24 January, when Desert Vipers beat MI Emirates to go top of the Gulf Giants with eight points after five matches. Abu Dhabi Knight Riders are at the bottom of the table with a one-point lead in the rain-affected match.
In South Africa, two-thirds of the SA20 competition was completed on 24 January, when it took a break until 2 February, when the South Africa men’s team took on England in a three-match ODI series. The break comes with Pretoria Capitals having 23 points from seven matches, followed by Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Paarl Royals both with 17 points from eight matches.
The opportunities provided by these tournaments are for men, but elsewhere in South Africa the first women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup is taking place in Potchefstroom and Benoni in the north of the country. Originally scheduled for January 2021, it was delayed by COVID-19 to December 2021 and then to January 2023 by the pandemic.
Twelve teams qualified automatically and four others – United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Scotland, Rwanda – through regional qualification groups. It is the first time that Rwanda or Indonesia have qualified for an ICC World Cup tournament at any level, while for Scotland, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and the United States, it is the first time that they have qualified for the Women’s ICC World Cup at any level. represents. New opportunities opened up for him.
The 16 teams were divided into four groups, playing against the other three teams in the group. After those matches, the top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Six league stage. In this, the qualifying teams of Group A played against two of the qualifying teams of Group D and the qualifying teams of Group B played against two of the qualifying teams of Group C. New Zealand and England have qualified from Group 2 for the semi-finals. India and Australia joined from Group 1.
Although UAE reached the Super Sixes, the team failed to advance further. Rwanda made good use of their opportunity, making an impressive start to the World Cup tournament. The team defeated Zimbabwe in the group stage and then pulled off a huge upset by defeating the West Indies in the Super Sixes match. Rwanda’s two spinners, Sylvia Usabimana and Mary Tumukunde, each took four wickets, the latter for only four runs, ruining their opponent’s chances of reaching the semi-finals.
South Africa is also hosting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, 2023, which begins on February 10. All matches will be played in the south of the country, with the final taking place in Cape Town on 26 February.
Ten teams will compete, divided into two groups of five, with the top two teams progressing to the semi-finals. Ireland and Bangladesh joined the eight automatic qualifiers through a qualifying tournament in September 2022.
If all this is not enough, the inaugural Women’s India Premier League is all set to begin in March, 2023 after a long wait. It will consist of five teams competing in a double round-robin league that leads to the play-off stage. Each team consists of 18 players and a maximum of six overseas players, of whom five may be in a Playing 1, but one of whom must be from an ICC Associate Member.
On 25 January, sealed bids were opened to reveal the winners of the five franchises. These bids totaled $573 million, which, at relative conversion rates, was more than the amount paid for the first men’s IPL in 2008. The highest bid of $158 million was submitted by Adani Sportsline Ltd for the Ahmedabad franchise, sitting in a range of other successful bids. $93 million to $111 million.
In 15 years, professional cricket has veered in a vastly different direction in terms of format and financial rewards, starting with the men. Given that the first Women’s T20 World Cup was played in 2009 and the first professional contracts were introduced in 2014, opportunities have opened up for women in a way that seemed most unlikely at the time.