Red Bull Campus Cricket to feature a women’s championship in 2021

The world’s biggest university-level cricket tournament will feature a women’s edition for the first time, starting with a championship in India. Red Bull Campus Cricket is all set to launch a women’s championship in India in 2021.

As the biggest university-level cricket tournament in the world, Red Bull Campus Cricket gives players a chance to represent their college team and go all the way to represent their country in the world finals. The year 2021 will see the first-ever women’s edition of the tournament get underway in India with the national women’s team opening batter Smriti Mandhana in strong support.

Red Bull Athlete Smriti Mandhana said, “I’m very happy that Red Bull Campus Cricket will be conducting a women’s edition next year. It will be a great platform for Indian women who want to play cricket professionally. Many players have gotten selected for their state teams and played for national teams after playing Red Bull Campus Cricket.

“Players like KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Manan Vohra, Anukul Roy and others have all played Red Bull Campus Cricket. To have a women’s edition will be a great boost for women’s cricket in India.”

In the past, Red Bull Campus Cricket has featured incredible Indian talent like KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Manan Vohra, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Shashank Singh, Siddhesh Lad, Himanshu Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anukul Roy, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ricky Bhui, and others. International stars Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Niroshan Dickwella and Chirag Suri also played in Red Bull Campus Cricket before going on to represent their respective countries.

Tournament set to unearth next star in Women’s cricket from 2021

The women’s competition will be held in four zones – north, south, east and west – with the winners of the zonal editions going on to play in the national finals. The winner of the national final will be declared the best women’s college cricket team in India.

A few players participating in the women’s championship will also get an amazing opportunity to interact with Smriti Mandhana. Red Bull Campus Cricket 2020 India Finals are currently underway in Lucknow. Jain College (Bengaluru), YBN College (Ranchi), SS Jain Subodh College (Jaipur), DAVV College (Indore), DAV College (Jalandhar), New LJ College (Ahmedabad), Loyala College (Chennai) and SOA University (Bhubaneswar) are participating in the national finals in the hope of becoming India champions. Coaches and players from Rajasthan Royals are also present at the national finals and will be scouting players to be recurred for the team’s trials next year.

About Red Bull Campus Cricket

Red Bull Campus Cricket is an annual international T20 tournament for college cricket teams, providing a platform for young talent to play on a world stage and make their way into professional cricket without having to give up on college education. The competition was launched in 2012 and is now in its ninth year.

In 2019, Red Bull Campus Cricket was played across 30 cities and featured 352 participating colleges. The tournament was won by DAV College, Chandigarh, edging out Hindustan College, Chennai, in an exciting low-scoring final to emerge as India champions. DAV College, Chandigarh, represented India at the Red Bull Campus Cricket 2019 World Finals in UAE where key players like Treykash Bali (199 runs) and Pankaj Sharma (nine wickets) shone positively on the world stage.

The 2019 edition of the tournament also featured a unique partnership with Rajasthan Royals to hunt for India’s next upcoming cricket stars. A team from Rajasthan Royals closely monitored and picked key players who were given the spectacular opportunity to be a part of the Rajasthan Royals trials for the next league auctions. Four participating players at Red Bull Campus Cricket were selected for the Rajasthan Royals trials.

They were Sushant Singh from Ranchi, Faizam Alam from Delhi, Manik Sirohi from Delhi and Shahrukh Khan from Chennai; Shahrukh Khan had been awarded Man of the Tournament at Red Bull Campus Cricket 2019 India Finals and was part of the 2019 league auctions but went unsold.