: Womens T20 cricket debut has the potential to be a gamechanger #IndiaNEWS #Sports By Niharika RainaNew Delhi, July 24 (IANS) A medal in a multi-nation event (CWG, Asian Games, Olympics) is always

Womens T20 cricket debut has the potential to be a gamechanger #IndiaNEWS #Sports
By Niharika RainaNew Delhi, July 24 (IANS) A medal in a multi-nation event (CWG, Asian Games, Olympics) is always a coveted achievement for any country in a particular sport. Similarly, womens cricket is definitely poised to get the rub of the green among other sports when it makes its debut at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and thus can prove to be a game-changer.
Seen as an optional sport in the Commonwealth Games, cricket first featured at the 1998 edition of the multi-nation event in Kuala Lumpur in the form of mens event, where 16 nations participated. The matches were of 50 overs and had List A status rather than being granted One-day International status. South Africa had won the gold, defeating Australia in the final while New Zealand won the bronze.
Ace all-rounder Shaun Pollock, who had captained a strong South Africa side to the gold medal, recalled to the ICC about the feeling of gold medal in the neck and singing the national anthem with his teammates.
Standing up on the podium, receiving the medal and singing our national anthem is an experience I will never forget and will always treasure.
Though the mens cricket event running for two weeks was hugely successful, it remained the sports only appearance in the Commonwealth Games till date.
But that is now all set to change when Australia and India take the field at Edgbaston on July 29. As Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur lead their teams on the field, it will be the first time that both the T20 format and womens cricket will feature in the Commonwealth Games.
Apart from Australia and India, hosts England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Barbados (no unified West Indies) will take part in the event spread across 16 matches at Edgbaston, with the gold medal and bronze medal matches scheduled on August 7. The eight teams are split across two groups of four teams each.
Group A will have Australia, Barbados, India and Pakistan, while Group B features England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka. England qualified automatically by virtue of being the hosts, while Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan qualified via their rankings as of April 1, 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic prevented the West Indies from organising a qualifier tournament, which meant Barbados were selected by virtue of winning the most recent Twenty20 Blaze in 2019.
In January 2022, Sri Lanka became the last team to join for the Commonwealth Games after defeating Bangladesh in the final of the qualifying tournament.
Womens cricket has been on an upswing since the 2017 ODI World Cup in England, which the hosts won, edging out India by nine runs in the title clash at Lords.

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