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SA to host Women's Cricket Challenge

20 August 2010

South Africa was recently chosen to host the inaugural ICC Women's Cricket Challenge, which will take place in Potchefstroom, North West province from 6 to 16 October.

The tournament will be played under the auspices of the International Cricket Council (ICC), with Cricket South Africa (CSA) as the official host.

Competing countries

According to the ICC, the challenge will take the form of all-women teams, currently ranked between fifth and 10th in the world, competing in a series of one day intenational (ODI) and Twenty20 fixtures. Countries in the line-up are South Africa, the Netherlands, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Ireland.

"This tournament is an ideal way for the women's teams ranked outside of the top four to gain more match experience in both ODI and Twenty20 formats," ICC global development manager Matthew Kennedy said in a statement.

The first round of the challenge will consist of ODIs, while the spectators' favourite – the Twenty20 games – will begin on 14 October. Most of the matches will be played at the North West University's Potchefstroom campus.

Shake up the rankings

It's hoped the October competition will shake up women's ODI rankings and enable some of the competing countries to qualify for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup to be played in India in 2013.

"The tournament will also provide a good challenge for all six competing teams, as none of them has yet qualified for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup," Kennedy said.

The top-four women ODI teams – England, New Zealand, India and defending champions Australia – have already qualified for the World Cup, which features eight nations.

The World Cup

South Africa participated in the 2009 World Cup held in Australia, and hosted it in 2005.

The country's female players are expected to perform well in the African qualifier games, which will wrap up in December 2010.

The final international qualifiers, to be held in Bangladesh in November 2011, will see 10 nations battle it out for the four remaining World Cup spots.

First SA national team

South Africa's first national women's cricket squad was selected in 1997 and since then the country has taken bold steps to develop the sport for females – this includes setting up the Cricket South Africa Women's Cricket Committee.

Women's cricket gained further momentum in South Africa at the start of the millennium when competitions such as the interprovincial league were initiated.

In the early 2000s more than 9 000 females from 1 109 schools and 269 clubs were playing cricket, according to CSA.

First published by MediaClubSouthAfrica.com – get free high-resolution photos and professional feature articles from Brand South Africa's media service.