India-West Indies women's T20I series cancelled
Indian women's cricket team's scheduled bilateral Twenty20 International series against the Windies have been cancelled owing to Cricket West Indies financial constraints.
The three-match T20I series was scheduled to be played in St Kitts ahead of the upcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup which is also scheduled to be played in West Indies only.
It was a golden opportunity for the Indian eves to go to the Caribbean before the World Cup as it could have proved to be a great practice series just before the mega event. But now they will just have the official warm-up games to play before the World Cup.
Both BCCI and Cricket West Indies (CWI) agreed to the proposal of conducting this series but as it was outside the ICC Women’s Championship structure where the Windies will host India in 2017-20 cycle, a schedule was yet to be made. As a result, the series is cancelled at the very last moment.
“CWI & BCCI were hoping to schedule three T20 International matches in St. Kitts ahead of the Women’s World T20, as part of our respective preparation plans. But as the series was not part of any bilateral future tours programme, CWI has been discussing the financial matters with the BCCI and therefore, unfortunately, the matches will now not be able to take place. Both teams will instead be training in Antigua before the ICC preparation period begins.”,” Cricket West Indies released a statement according to Cricbuzz.
The Women's team are clubbed with Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Pakistan in the Group B of the World Cup pool and will begin their contest on November 11 in the match against arch-rivals Pakistan.
Group A has the host West Indies along with England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and the top two teams of both the groups will lock horns in the semi-finals which will be followed by the penultimate final match.
Indian women's team have not been able to qualify beyond the group stage in of the previous editions but this time they hold a great chance as many of their players are familiar with the conditions of the Caribbean. Out their 15-member squad, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy and Ekta Bisht have played their back in 2012.