SHARJAH With hardly any opportunity to play quality matches for the women’s cricket team in the UAE, the Sharjah Cricket Council (SCC) has come up with an innovative idea launching the Sharjah Academy T20 Challenge Cup 2015.
In the new tournament, which began in the first week of May, the girls were divided into two teams and another two boys team (under-13 and under-15) were invited from the Sharjah Cricket Academy. A fixture was drawn where all the teams get to play against each other thus giving the girls teams a chance to play against the boys teams.
Move forward
“For the girls’ team it has always been practice and net sessions. So we thought we need to move forward and that’s when this idea came up,” said SCC secretary Mazhar Khan.
“The intention was to give the girls some competitive matches and I think the results so far are worth noting. In one match they even managed to pull off a win over the boys team. That obliviously will give them so much of confidence,” he added.
Two matches are being held every weekend at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and will go on till the last week of May with the top two teams to play in the final.
“Other than playing matches against strong opponents the girls also get a chance to play at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Getting this opportunity every week itself is a big draw for these girls,” said Mohammed Hyder, head coach of Sharjah Cricket Council.
The interest in women cricket has been on the rise after the UAE team emerged champions in the inaugural GCC Women’s Twenty20 Championship held in Oman in December last year.
“There has been a surge in the number of girls turning up for the practice. We now have a pool of 30 to 35 girls who are regular at the nets. So we had to take them to the next level and this tournament is the right way to elevate their performance.
“Playing against the boys has given them great confidence. The girls have shown tremendous improvement,” Hyder added.
With the tournament turning to be a success, Mazhar Khan said the council would plan to make it an annual affair. “That will be our first focus but we are also planning to invite teams from Dubai and Abu Dhabi next year. Plans are also in the pipeline to have friendly matches with Oman, Kuwait and Qatar teams on a bilateral basis.”
