Nostalgic moment for Sharjah as Women's T20 World Cup begins

A country which was struggling to put together 11 players for a women’s cricket team until 19 years ago, is all set to host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup from Thursday.

It will be an emotional moment for everyone associated with the Sharjah Cricket Stadium when Pakistan take on Sri Lanka on the opening day of the tournament.

Almost 10 years ago, Sharjah hosted Pakistan’s one-day match against the Sri Lankans in what was the grand old stadium’s first women’s international match.

“The first international women’s match at our stadium was played in 2015 between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. So, it’s nice to see that both these teams will be playing tomorrow in Sharjah on the opening day of the tournament,” Mazhar Khan, General Manager of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, told the Khaleej Times.

“It was a bilateral series and Pakistan was the host. Those days the Pakistan team were not able to play home matches in their country due to security reasons, so that series was played in Sharjah.”

While Pakistan face Sri Lanka in the evening match (6 pm) on Thursday, Bangladesh take on Scotland in the opening game (2 pm) at the same stadium.

Bangladesh was scheduled to host the World Cup, but the political unrest amid a violent student protest across the South Asian country forced the ICC to bring the 10-team tournament to these shores. “It’ a blessing to host women’s World Cup matches. We are thankful to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, the ICC and the Emirates Cricket Board for giving us the opportunity to host these matches,” Khan said.

Remarkably, the UAE came tantalizingly close to qualifying for this tournament when they reached the semifinals of the Global Qualifiers early this year.

But a narrow loss to the hugely experienced Sri Lankans in the last four ended the dream of making their World Cup debut.

Nevertheless, Khan said the star-studded World Cup will inspire a lot of young girls to take up cricket in this country.

“As far as UAE women’s cricket is concerned, it’s going to be a big boost for the game in this country,” he said.  “When we look back, it was difficult to put up a team of 11 girls for a match. Now the things have changed and the girls are doing very well.

“We almost qualified for this World Cup. Our team is very good now, they are among the strongest associate teams in Asia.”

The strongest team in the 2024 edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup is Australia, which have won the title six times.

Rarely have a team dominated a tournament as relentlessly as Australia.

But skipper Alyssa Healy refused to take her opponents lightly.

“There are 10 teams sitting on the stage here today that deserve to be here and have a real shot at winning this World Cup,” Healy said during the Captains’ Day at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday.

“You don't come here to defend a title, that's not what a World Cup is about, you come here to win it, so we're here with that approach and I'm excited to get underway.”

Australia have been drawn in Group A alongside India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

“Our pool is quite a tricky one. We’ve got to get past a lot of these teams to be able to lift the trophy and it's a challenge we're excited for,” the Aussie captain said.

Australia are likely to face their biggest challenge from India in the group stages.

The women’s game has seen a remarkable improvement in cricket-crazy India, but their team is still waiting for their first piece of ICC silverware.

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, though, said her team will draw inspiration from the men’s team T20 World Cup triumph this year.

“Obviously, their victory was a big inspiration for us. I am happy with where our team is, like how our team is working hard to achieve small, small things,” the flamboyant middle-order batter said.

Meanwhile, South Africa, who have been drawn in Group B alongside Bangladesh, Scotland, England and the West Indies, are also hoping to win the elusive trophy after finishing runners-up last year.

“I think last year was great, but we're just looking to take it one game at a time,” captain Laura Wolvaardt said.

“Obviously a very difficult pool, but hopefully we can make semifinals and then anything can happen from that.”

Fans now can’t wait for the action to begin as Dubai and Sharjah will host 23 matches over 18 days to decide the next winner of the global showpiece.

ICC 2024 Women's T20 World Cup

October 3-20

• Why Sharjah Cricket Stadium is a big attraction for tourists from India, Pakistan