BCCI likely to cancel Women's T20 Challenge this year amidst surge in Covid-19 cases in India

The coronavirus has assumed gargantuan proportions in India. The country is faced with an unprecedented surge of Covid-19 cases, and over 350000 cases were reported on 27th April 2021. And, this surge of Covid-19 cases has had an impact on the cricketing world as well.

The Women’s T20 challenge, which was earlier scheduled to take place during the Playoffs stage of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) might get postponed or even canceled this year. In fact, a senior Indian Women’s cricketer has stated that there is some devastating news that is awaiting the Indian Women cricketers.

The Woman cricketer also added that the players thought that this tournament will allow them to prepare for the series against England in June. The Senior Women’s cricketer stated that all the calls to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have gone unanswered, and this was the last thing that the cricketers expected.

“This is devastating news for us. We genuinely thought this edition will give us some very important game time before we take on the English side. All comes crashing down now. Calls have gone unanswered at the moment. That was the least we expected,” said the Woman cricketer as quoted by Cricket.com.

The primary focus of the BCCI is to conduct the IPL

Also, a BCCI official has added that the primary focus right now is to ensure that the 2021 edition of the IPL is conducted in a safe manner. However, there is also a concern that is facing the BCCI, as some of the Australian players have pulled out of the tournament. An official announcement from the BCCI might come soon.

The Women’s T20 Challenge is a tournament that has taken place since 2017. The tournament features 3 Women’s teams that compete against each other during the Playoffs stage of the IPL.

During the 2020 edition of the IPL that was held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Trailblazers emerged as the champions. The Smriti Mandhana led side beat the Supernovas by 16 runs to win the tournament. Mandhana was awarded the Player of the Match award for scoring 68 off just 49 deliveries in the summit clash.