BCCI Grants NOCs To Four Indian Women Cricketers For 'The Hundred' Tournament

The Board of Control of Cricket in India has granted No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for women cricketers allowing them to participate in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. It was a huge relief as BCCI hasn’t allowed its Indian players earlier to take part in a foreign league stating that the popularity of the IPL may weaken and now it has sent the NOCs to the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Prior to this, the BCCI also had allowed the U-23 state players who aren’t part of the IPL to participate in The Hundred tournament which came as a huge surprise, and although the official reason is not stated, it is expected that the BCCI is looking to form a strong relationship with ECB so that the England players are sent for the IPL 2022 which could be a three-month tournament as ten teams are involved.

Indian Players To Extend Their Stay In the UK

Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepthi Sharma are the four Indian woman cricketers that will be participating in the eight-team tournament which starts on July 21.  This will be a major boost for them as the Women’s T20 challenge will not take place this year due to the rise in Covid-19 cases. The Hundred tournament was postponed last year amid pandemic issues.

The four Indian players are set to tour England for a complete series in June comprising of three ODI, three T20s, and one Test. The tour starts with the test on June 16 and comes to an end with the final T20i on July 15. The Indian women who signed contracts for the tournament are set to stay in the country after the series between Indian women and England women gets over.

Big Names Sign Up For The Hundred Tournament

The inaugural edition of The Hundred tournament is set to kick off with the Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals in London for the women cricketers and it will be followed by the same teams comprising of men cricketers on the next day. The big names in women’s cricket including Sophie Devine (Birmingham Phoenix), Deandra Dottin (London Spirit), Marizanne Kapp (Oval Invincibles), and Meg Lanning (Welsh Fire) have signed up for the tournament.

The Hundred tournament has different set rules and regulations with only 100 balls per side and it will be interesting to see how it goes.