Six overseas female cricketers have arrived in the country to play the three exhibition matches of the Women’s League.According to the details, Lauren Winfield, Danni Wyatt, Maia Bouchier and Tammy Beaumont from England, South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt, and Ireland’s Laura Delany reached Islamabad on Monday.

The exhibition matches will be played between Bismah Maroof-led Amazaons and Nida Dar-led Super Women at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on 8, 10 and 11 March ahead of the Pakistan Super League season 8 fixtures. A total of 10 leading foreign players from seven countries will represent the two teams during the women’s exhibition games, which are billed as the soft launch of the Pakistan Women’s League, which is tentatively planned for September.

Ireland’s Laura Delany, England’s trio of Lauren Winfield-Hill, Maia Bouchier and Tammy Beaumont, and Australia’s Tess Flintoff are part of Amazons, while Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu, Danni Wyatt of England, Jahanara Alam of Bangladesh, South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt and Lea Tahuhu of New Zealand represents Super Women.

These foreign stars will be accompanied by Pakistan’s 20 elite players, four U19 players who featured in the recently held ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup (Areesha Noor, Eyman Fatima, Shawaal Zulfiqar and Syeda Aroob Shah) and two emerging cricketers (Fatima Khan and Syeda Masooma Zahra).

The 36 cricketers have been equally divided into two sides with the playing line-ups to include a maximum of four and minimum of three foreign players and a minimum of one emerging or U19 player. Of the 10 foreign players, eight cricketers recently featured in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa with Delany and Athapaththu captaining Ireland and Sri Lanka, respectively.

South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt is one of the biggest stars in women’s cricket. She was selected in the Team of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 and is the sixth-ranked batter in the world. Similarly, Danni Wyatt is one of the recognisable names in women’s cricket following her 1,776 ODI and 2,369 T20I runs. Along with Suzie Bates of New Zealand, Wyatt is the second most capped T20I player with 143 matches, eight matches behind India’s Harmanpreet Kaur.

Amazons: Bismah Maroof (c), Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Areesha Noor, Eyman Fatima, Fatima Khan, Fatima Sana, Ghulam Fatima, Gull Feroza, Kainat Imtiaz, Laura Delany (Ireland), Lauren Winfield-Hill (England), Maia Bouchier (England), Nashra Sundhu, Sadaf Shamas, Tammy Beaumont (England), Tess Flintoff (Australia) and Umm-e-Hani.

Super Women: Nida Dar (c) Aimen Anwar, Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), Danni Wyatt (England), Iram Javed, Jahanara Alam (Bangladesh), Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa), Lea Tahuhu (New Zealand), Muneeba Ali, Natalia Parvaiz, Omaima Sohail, Sadia Iqbal, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz, Syeda Aroob Shah, Syeda Masooma Zahra and Tuba Hassan.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP