BCCI grants NOCs to four India women cricketers to take part in The Hundred

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given No Objection Certificates (NOC) to four Indian women cricketers to take part in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. The tournament was set to be played in 2020, but it had to be postponed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament, organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is set to start on July 21.

Along with the women’s edition, the men’s edition gets underway on July 22. The format of The Hundred states that an innings will comprise 100 balls with a change of end after every 10 deliveries. The women’s edition comprises eight teams with the tournament opener to be played between Manchester Originals and Oval Invincibles at the Kennington Oval in London.

Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Trent Rockets, Southern Brave, Welsh Fire and Northern Superchargers are the other six participating teams in the championship. As far as the Indian cricketers are concerned, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur have gotten NOCs if reports in ESPNcricinfo are to be believed.

2021 Women’s T20 Challenge likely to be postponed

Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Sarah Taylor are some of the prominent names to take part in the tournament. Recently, the Indian women players were dealt with a blow after it was learned that the BCCI is likely to postpone the fourth edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge due to the potential unavailability of players after the travel restrictions imposed to and from India.

Though an official announcement hasn’t been made, it has been learned that the BCCI has acknowledged the challenges associated with the T20 tournament. Players from England, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh and Thailand took part in the championship last season. 12 overseas players took part in the 2020 Women’s T20 Challenge at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

The Trailblazers, led by Smriti Mandhana, became the champions after beating the Supernovas in the final. Mithali Raj’s Velocity couldn’t make the final. The Indian cricketers recently returned to international cricket after a gap of nearly 12 months. They played in a T20I and ODI series against South Africa.