KOLKATA: Is there any department where members of the Pakistan women’s World T20 team score over their better-known male counterparts?
Apparently there is — in terms of their exposure to the event.
Actually, that is playing with the truth a tad. It is not exposure per se, but the number of successive World T20s that some of the Pakistani women have appeared in. It is here that they score.
The men’s event began in 2007, and only Shahid Afridi has played in all five till now. This will be his sixth.
The women’s tournament began two years later, and five Pakistani female players have turned up in all four previous events — Asmavia Iqbal, Bismah Maroof, Javeria Khan, Nain Abedi and Sana Mir.
This will be their fifth World T20.
Overall Trend
As the 27-day ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 began in Nagpur on Tuesday, this seems to be the overall trend, across teams.
The squads for both categories show 19 men’s players are set to feature in their sixth straight event, while 29 women cricketers will make their fifth successive appearance.
The reason of course is obvious: there are more men playing the game than women.
The tournament will be played at eight venues across India, with Eden Gardens in Kolkata set to host the finals — both men’s and women’s — on April 3.
The Pakistan men’s team also flag off their campaign at the Eden on March 16 against a qualifier, after a warm-up against West Indies at the same venue on March 12.
Other teams — Men
In the men’s event, Bangladesh leads with five players who have played in all previous five events — Masrafe bin Mortaza, Shakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim.
The India and West Indies sides include three players each who have participated in the previous events, held in South Africa, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Among the Indians are Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh, while and Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle and Denesh Ramdin are from the West Indies.
Teams with two players having played in all past events are New Zealand (Nathan McCullum, Ross Taylor), South Africa (AB de Villiers, JP Duminy) and Sri Lanka (Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga).
Giving Afridi company for teams with only one player is Shane Watson of Australia.
Other teams — Women
In the women’s event, which has been staged alongside the men’s since 2009, the West Indies will enter the competition with six players having played in all tournaments to date.
They are followed by Pakistan (five players), England and South Africa (four each), New Zealand and Sri Lanka (three each), and India and Australia (two each).
Incidentally, the two Indians playing their fifth successive competition (Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami), and the two Australians (Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry) were outstanding when the two sides clashed in Australia in January.
The Indian women won the three-match T20 series 2-1.
Footnote
In 2018 and 2022, there will be stand-alone women’s ICC World Twenty20 tournaments, which will be staged in the West Indies and South Africa, respectively.
Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2016
