Women’s T20 Challenge 2021 likely to be postponed – Reports

Women’s T20 Challenge 2021 likely to be postponed – Reports

The rising number of COVID-19 cases in India has cast a cloud of concern over the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and the same is also set to lead to the postponement or cancelation of the annual Women’s T20 Challenge tournament which was initially scheduled to take place along with the IPL before the playoff stages. A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) source reportedly confirmed the same.

The Women’s T20 Challenge has been taking place right from 2017 and it is a tri-series featuring three teams – Trailblazers, Supernovas and Velocity. Trailblazers were the champions last year thanks to their skipper Smriti Mandhana‘s superb performance throughout the tournament and especially in the final where she scored 68 runs in just 49 deliveries to help beat Supernovas by 16 runs.

BCCI Official speaks on postponement of Women’s T20 Challenge

Women's T20 Challenge
Smriti Mandhana during the Women’s T20 Challenge

A BCCI official reportedly spoke to ANI about the postponement and said, “An official decision is yet to be made, but unfortunately it looks highly unlikely. The second COVID-19 wave has made things very difficult and with travel restrictions and flight bans, hosting a tournament with overseas players won’t be easy. Also, the safety of everyone involved will always be the priority. Might have to skip this edition and get back to hosting it next season.”

An unnamed women’s cricketer reportedly reacted to the news and said, “This is devastating news for us. We genuinely thought this edition will give us some very important game time before we take on the English side. All comes crashing down now. Calls have gone unanswered at the moment. That was the least we expected.”

It remains to be seen what decision the BCCI takes in this regard.

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