CHENNAI: The BCCI finally has given some direction for women’s players. On Saturday, the BCCI appointed the new women’s selection committee which will be led by the former India left-arm spinner Neetu David. Arati Vaidya, Renu Margrate, Venkatacher Kalpana and Mithu Mukherjee are the other members. This probably, sets in the motion for the women’s T20 Challenger to go ahead in the UAE in the first week of November.
Though the BCCI hasn’t revealed anything about the T20 Challenger yet, picking three teams for these matches that will be played during the play-offs is likely to be the first assignment for Neetu & Co. Earlier, there were doubts about the proposed national camp and T20 Challenger with no one to pick the players as the tenure of the previous selection panel ended in January. However, with this announcement on Saturday, some kind of clarity is expected soon on the road ahead for women. There are still doubts over the proposed bilateral series against South Africa and West Indies because of the pandemic situation in India.
Neetu, one of the best spinners from India, has featured in 10 Tests and 97 ODIs and has taken a total of 182 wickets in the period between 1995 and 2006. “On account of seniority, Neetu David, the former left-arm spinner, will head the five-member committee. She is also the second-highest wicket-taker for India in WODIs with 141 scalps and was also the first from India to take 100 WODI wickets,” the BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement.
Having received around 20 applications at the start of the year, BCCI delayed the process due to the coronavirus-enforced break and was also criticised for ignoring women’s cricket after the team pulled out of the series against England.