Shantha Rangaswamy writes to BCCI suggesting A tours, domestic pink-ball Test for women

The BCCI Apex Council member Shantha Rangaswamy has come forward to write to her colleagues and office bearers regarding the organizing of a domestic pink-ball competition. She suggested that ahead of the historic women’s day-night Test in Australia that starts from September 30, a pink ball competition should be organized for the players.

Shantha also opined that regular India A tours for the women would play a pivotal role in boosting the women’s game and empowering the bench strength. She thus requested to consider the need for such tours for the domestic players which can be held when the Indian team would travel to Australia. “There is a need to increase the India ‘A’ tours for women. I request you to consider such a tour against teams like Sri Lanka/Bangladesh when our senior women go over to Australia.”

Shantha opined that the way BCCI is finding ways to compensate the loss of male domestic players owing to Covid, they should stress on the women’s players too. Opening up further she thanked the BCCI for the staging of the women’s Test match after a span of 7 long years. Shantha credited the efforts of the Indian women’s team for having drawn the Test match against England. “Thanks to BCCI’s efforts, Test cricket has been revived with Indian women having played England recently,” she wrote as quoted by Sportstar.

Shantha Rangaswamy suggests a practice game for women ahead of the challenge Down Under

India women would be playing a pink-ball Test at the WACA in Perth and Shantha feels that ahead of the game, the players must play under lights with the pink ball. Describing her previous mention in the Apex Council meeting on June 20, Shantha wrote that the men’s team too struggled in the pink ball Test but as they play more games they could erase the memory. As with the women, it is a one-off Test, so she appealed that this request might be accepted.

She also wrote that the domestic players haven’t played any red-ball cricket since 2018 and thus suggested two-day games involving four teams to be played ahead of the tour. The probable window to host this domestic game is August as India is also supposed to play an ODI series prior to the pink-ball Test. Shantha wrote that though there are time constraints, this would be an utmost important step to get the players ready for the one-off Test match.

“But to ward off a one-sided Test against Australia, there is a dire need to make them play as suggested above. Since the IPL Women’s Challenge itself is in jeopardy given the time constraint, I appeal to all of you to schedule the above to make the women’s team adapt to the Pink Ball.”