BCCI denies NOC to top Indian women players for T20 tournament in Dubai – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hasn’t granted the NOC to five women’s cricketers to take part in the global women’s T20 Invitational tournament in 2022 from 1 to 15 May in Dubai.

The competition is being organised by Cricket Hong Kong and Fairbreak Global. The board has added that it’s important for the players to play the domestic tournament which will be played around the same time as it would be the basis for the qualification for the 2023 T20 World Cup.

File image of Indian opening batter Smriti Mandhana. AP

“The BCCI has denied to issue No-Objection certificates to the five Indian players who had signed up a contract last year to participate in this event — Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, and Jemimah Rodrigues. This event will start on May 1, while the BCCI’s domestic women’s inter-state championship will start in Nagpur on April 18. The knockouts will start on May 1.

“The BCCI feels that it’s important for all Indian women’s cricketers to play in the domestic T20 tournament as it’s the basis for the qualification for the 2023 T20 World Cup in February in South Africa. The Board also wants its players to be available for the Women’s T20 Challenge, which will start from around May 24,” a source said according to The Times of India.

“The BCCI also denied giving a NOC to GS Lakshmi, who was the match referee during the Women’s World Cup final between England and Australia in New Zealand on April 3, for the Dubai event as Lakshmi is supposed to be the match referee in the domestic Women’s T20 championship,” the source further added.

The organisers have expressed a bit of disappointment at BCCI’s decision not to allow the players to take part in the tournament.

“The organisers are a bit disappointed that the BCCI has unfortunately denied permission to India’s women’s cricketers to play in this event, which has been sanctioned by the ICC,” said a source close to the organisers.

The Indian women cricketers have been part of Fairbreak’s Global XIs in 2018 and 2019.

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