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RAWALPINDI: Ireland captain Laura Delany and Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu hope the upcoming women’s league in Pakistan will be a game changer for the country’s players.
The first of the three exhibition Twenty20 matches between Amazons and Super Women sides, featuring Pakistan’s elite women cricketers alongside a number of top-level foreign players, starts today here at the Pindi Cricket Stadium. These games are being staged during the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) as a test run before a full-scale women’s league is launched in the near future.
The match begins at 2:00pm (Pakistan Standard Time) and will be followed by the HBL PSL-8 fixture between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators, to start at 7:00pm, said a press release issued by the PCB on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s 26 elite and emerging women cricketers will be joined by 10 international stars from seven countries in the extravaganza.
Two women umpires — Humaira Farah and Saleema Imtiaz — will share on-field umpiring responsibilities with Shozab Raza and Tariq Rasheed.
Delany and Athapaththu, who are part of the exhibition matches, in their exclusive chat with Dawn on Tuesday said they were too much excited to participate in the matches and requested the local crowd to back women cricket too.
Both the players will be in action on Wednesday against each other, as Delany is part of Amazons, which will be led by former Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof while Athapaththu is included in the Super Women side to be captained by veteran Pakistan all-rounder Nida Dar.
Delany, under whose leadership Ireland defeated Pakistan in a T20 series in Lahore in November last year, said Pakistan had many talented women players.
“The exhibition matches will be a great opportunity for young Pakistan players to share dressing room with quality international and Pakistan players,” the 30-year-old Delany said while talking to Dawn.
“During the recently-held T20 World Cup [in South Africa], I noticed several talented young girls in the Pakistan team. Therefore, I believe Pakistan’s women cricket holds a bright future,” she said, adding franchise cricket will be a game changer for Pakistan’s women cricketers.
The Irish captain, holding a vast experience of 49 ODIs and 89 T20 Internationals, hoped the planned women’s league in Pakistan would materialise after the exhibition matches.
“After these exhibition matches, as a next step the Pakistan Cricket Board will conduct Pakistan Super League (PSL) for women for which the PCB has the best players, nice venues, good pitches and excellent facilities,” Delany said while terming the ongoing PSL for men as one of the world’s best cricket leagues.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Athapaththu said franchise cricket in any country played important role in promoting its players.
“In a country like Pakistan, which already has a top brand like PSL, a cricket league for women will be a success story and real game changer for women cricketers of the country,” she remarked while talking to Dawn.
Left-handed batter Athapaththu, who has represented Sri Lanka in 90 ODIs and 110 T20 Internationals, said the exhibition matches in Rawalpindi will provide a great platform to young cricketers and appealed to parents to encourage their daughters, if they were showing interest in cricket, noting now women cricket had a great future.
Talking about the Pakistan national women’s team, the Sri Lankan skipper said the side had a several good and experienced players as well a number of youngsters, who required international exposure to develop their skills.
“[The] Pakistan players are skilful who can excel with more international exposure,” Athapaththu said, adding that Pakistan also needed some good finishers to ensure victory in death overs. “Overall Pakistan are a very good team.”
Answering a question about the difference between the standard of men’s and women’s cricket, the Sri Lankan skipper said the gap was now narrowing.
“In the past, women’s cricket was less interesting than men’s game. However, now with support from the International Cricket Council, as more and more international competitions are being held, franchise-based leagues are also taking place.. so this gap in standard is reducing,” said Athapaththu.i
Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023
