The year 2022 is going to be big in women’s cricket. In that year, they have three major events – the rescheduled ODI World Cup, a T20 World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. Australia women’s prominent player Alyssa Healy, who would also be playing Ashes series in 2022, has said that playing in four big events in one year would daunting for them but she is also excited for the show.
This would be probably the first time that the women’s’ cricket would have all the major events in one year. Earlier, the women’s ODI World Cup was scheduled in February-March in 2021 but ICC postponed the event to 2022.
The reason given by ICC for the postponement was to give enough preparatory time teams for the event because the pandemic had halted the sport for over five months.
Alyssa Healy, who was the star performer for Australia in T20 World Cup 2020 victory, said that it would be interesting to see how ICC balances all the events in one year. After a long time, women cricketers will get the opportunity to play in the big events so she is assured that everyone would be raring to be the part of it.
“Look, it will be interesting to see how they [the ICC] are able to balance all those events. Enabling all the international sides to have proper preparation for those big tournaments is key, and if that’s not able to take place, then they’re obviously going to look at rescheduling some of the events,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Healy as saying.
“The opportunity to play four big major worldwide events in one year is obviously daunting, but it’s also exciting for us to showcase the women’s game on an international scale as big as that. I think most of the girls around the world would be chomping at the bits to be part of it,” she added.
ODI World Cup postponement was disappointing: Alyssa Healy
The Aussie opener Healy admits that the postponement of the ODI World Cup 2021 had disappointed everyone. But she acknowledges that safety is a priority now. She has her focus on the World Cup in 2022 wants to play some bilateral series ahead of the mega event.
“The ODI World Cup postponement was obviously a disappointing thing for the women’s game, but there are bigger factors are at play here. We need everyone to be safe, we need everyone to be healthy.
“For us, hopefully, we can be best prepared for the next ODI World Cup. Hopefully, we can see some bilateral series popping up in the near future when they’re safe to do so,” she concluded.
Alyssa Healy will feature in the upcoming ODI and T20I series against New Zealand scheduled in September. She would also play in the Women’s Big Bash League slated from 17th October.