Former Pakistan captain Urooj Mumtaz has expressed her disappointment over Pakistani cricketers not being a part of the inaugural edition of the much-awaited Women’s Premier League (WPL).
On Monday (February 13), female cricketers from around the world secured lucrative contracts at the first-ever WPL auction. The tournament has been widely tipped to transform women’s cricket. However, female cricketers from Pakistan just like their male counterparts were not a part of the auction and would not be taking part in the WPL.
India have suspended all the cricketing ties with Pakistan due to political reasons between the two nations. Both the teams do not play against each other in bilateral series and only lock horns in ICC tournaments or the Asia Cup.
The Pakistani male players participated in the IPL just once when they played in the inaugural season in 2008. Later that year, the bilateral ties were suspended following the terrorist attack in Mumbai. During the 2012/13 season, the bilateral ties were resumed for a brief period when Pakistan visited India for a short limited-overs tour.
However, since then, both the countries have played against each other only in global and continental tournaments. And the way things are at the moment, it won’t be very surprising if the bilateral ties do not resume any time soon.
Urooj Mumtaz disappointed:
As the cricketers from Pakistan missed out on the lucrative contracts and the opportunity to play in the WPL, Urooj Mumtaz stated that it was ‘extremely unfortunate’. Ignoring the political tension between the two nations, Urooj Mumtaz called for the game to be fair and inclusive.
“It is extremely unfortunate to see Pakistan players missing out,” Urooj Mumtaz told ESPNcricinfo. “Every opportunity must be fair and inclusive, and all opportunities are steps towards collectively raising the standard of the women’s game and globally growing the sport. Most importantly, they bridge the gap in quality between cricketing nations.”
Recently, Pakistan women team’s captain Bismah Maroof had expressed her disappointment over the players from her country not getting opportunities to play in T20 leagues. Speaking before the clash against India in the ongoing T20 World Cup, she had said: “We as Pakistan you know we don’t get many opportunities to play in the leagues and that’s very unfortunate. Definitely we will love to play and we would want every opportunity we can get in the leagues. But yeah, that’s what it is and we can’t control that.”
Meanwhile, a total of five teams will participate in the inaugural edition of the WPL. On Monday, the five franchises spent a total of Rs 59.50 crore on buying 87 players for the inaugural edition of the tournament. The WPL will take place from March 5 to 26 in Mumbai.
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