England and Wales Cricket Board is aiming to host women’s international limited overs series during the summer. India and South Africa are being seen as the potential visitors for the series to restart women’s international cricket, which has been on halt since the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia in February-March this year.
KOVID-19 pandemic had brought global sports to a halt since March-end with the action in some parts returning without any spectators in stadiums.
“Ultimately, we will get some international cricket, all being well. The plan is to get some international cricket for the England team later this summer. We’re talking to the BCCI and Cricket South Africa about bringing their women’s teams over to play a tri-series,” ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison has reportedly said in a BBC podcast.
“So we’ve something to celebrate with the women’s game, in September this year. We’re desperate to continue the momentum, the growth in the women’s game which has been so astonishing in the last few years,” he said.
Indian women’s scheduled series against England, involving three One-Day Internationals and as many Twenty20 Internationals, is also under suspension due to the novel coronavirus threat.
Harrison has also clarified that the decision on inviting India for the tri-series will depend on how India combats the contagious disease. “There’s a huge amount of work going on but we’re not controlling every part of this decision. One of the things that has become clear about this crisis is when you’re dealing with international teams, you’re dealing with the COVID environment here and overseas as well,” he said.
U.K. has so far seen over 2,85,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 40,000 deaths. India till date has reported nearly 2.86 lakh confirmed cases and resulting in 7,745 deaths.
“If we were in the eye of the storm a few weeks ago, in this country, it very much now looks like that has moved to the subcontinent where they’re experiencing their very tough moment with this pandemic. And hopefully, they can get over that quickly which will enable us to bring the team over,” he said.
“Hopefully we continue to make progress in defeating this virus and we can have a good tri-series with India and South Africa towards the end of the summer.”