Cricket
Women's IPL 2020: Why are there no Australian player this season?
The Women’s T20 Challenge will be underway today with the defending champions Supernovas and last year finalists Velocity taking on each other at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The previous editions of Women’s T20 Challenge saw players from countries like England, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka making a mark in the tournament.
This season will see a total of 12 foreign players from countries like England, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and South Africa turning up for the three teams. But, did you notice that this season doesn’t feature any of the Australians? Yes, you won’t see the likes of Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, and Meg Lanning in this edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge. Apart from the Australians some other big names like Sophie Devine, Amelia Kerr, Natalie Sciver and others would be missing the tournament.
Also read: Women’s IPL 2020: 5 youngsters who would look to make a mark this season
What’s the reason behind the absence of these big guns?
This is because of the fact that the Women’s T20 Challenge this time around clashes with the dates of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). The WBBL is already underway since October 25th and will go on until November 29th.
This clash meant that the players who are contracted with the WBBL franchises had to miss out on the Women’s T20 Challenge. Not only the foreign players, even the Indian stars like Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues are at loss as they miss out on the opportunity to play in the WBBL this year due to their commitments in Women’s T20 Challenge.
The fact to be noted is that the BCCI finalised the dates of Women’s T20 Challenge much after the WBBL dates were announced. There were quite a few foreign players like Alyssa Healy and Suzie Bates who raised their concern regarding the same, but the BCCI maintained that there were no alternate dates available to host their mini tournament.
The Indian veterans, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, though were in support of the BCCI’s decision with Raj terming it as a ‘good move’ and Goswami ‘hugely welcomed’ the decision.
Also read: The IPL favourites: After 10 games who will take the win
