Sports
RCW set for Women’s T20 league
Rising Cricket for Women (RCW) is organising the first Women’s Twenty20 Cricket League on March 7-10 in Chitwan.Rising Cricket for Women (RCW) is organising the first Women’s Twenty20 Cricket League on March 7-10 in Chitwan.
A total of four teams will participate in the league-cum-knockout tournament that offers Rs 50,000 to the champions. Milan Cricket Club of Jhapa, Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club, RCW and All India Women’s Twenty20 Cricket Association (AWTCA) are in fray for the title. Top two teams after the league round will play for the championship.
RCW President Aarati Bidari, also a national cricket who plays for Kathmandu regional team, said they had initially planned for a six-team league. “We had invited a Bangladeshi club but they pulled out at the last moment and so we decided to make it a four-team event. This tournament was already postponed thrice but now we wanted to go with the teams that were available for us,” said Bidari on Monday.
APF skipper Sita Rana Magar said the tournament is a big boost for national cricketers. “We are hardly getting playing times. This tournament will also see players coming from India, who no doubt are going to be relatively stronger than our local teams. This is the exposure we had been looking for,” said Magar. According to RCW, the AWTCA team will include state level players from India.
Shweta Bagla, the Marketing Head of tournament co-sponsors IME, said the association with the tournament came because they were supporting women empowerment. “What they (RCW) has been doing is great for women’s cricket. It relates to the empowerment of women. We are hopeful that it would work in the development of women’s cricket in the long run,” said Bagla.
RCW has been holding several women’s cricket tournaments and currently runs a cricket academy in Pharping. It has also been taking Nepali women to play tournaments in India.
“We have been doing a lot of programmes. The Twenty20 League is one of them. As women, we hardly get support from sponsors. If everything goes as planned, we will continue this tournament every year and come up with more programmes,” said Bidari.