Female cricketers begin preparations to return to competitive cricket

Competitive cricket had been on hold in Bangladesh for a long time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the men's team has returned to international cricket, the women cricketers, who only had individual practice sessions during the Covid-19 period, have not yet had a chance to return to competitive cricket. But their wait is eventually over as they are set to return to the field soon.

They have started a training camp ahead of the ninth Bangladesh Games and the series against South Africa. 32 women cricketers from the national team and the emerging team are taking part in a 13-day camp which started at the Mirpur National Cricket Academy on Wednesday.

The camp will continue till March 1. The cricketers reported on February 15. Their fitness test was done on Tuesday and skill practice began on Wednesday.

At the end of the camp, the national team and the emerging team will go to Sylhet on March 2. After five days of preparation, they will compete in the Bangladesh games. It will begin on March 7 and will continue till March 12. Bangladesh national women's team, emerging team and under-19 women's team will participate in the women's cricket event in the tournament. The girls will play a total of four matches, including the final. The matches will be played in one-day format.

The curtain of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh  Games will be raised on April 1. The BCB will start the cricket event a little earlier as the Bangladesh national women's team has a one-day series against the South African Emerging Women's team at that time.

"We have two tournaments ahead," Touhid Mahmud, in-charge of the women's team, told The Business Standard. "The first is the Bangladesh Games, the second is the series against the South African Women. Skill training has started from today. The girls of the national team and the emerging team are camping here. The girls of the under-19 team are camping in Sylhet. There are 32 cricketers in Mirpur now. We will form the squads for the Bangladesh games including the players from the national team, emerging team and the U-19 team."

South Africa Emerging Women's cricket team will arrive in Bangladesh on March 26 to play a five-match one-day series against Bangladesh. The two teams will lock horns in the first one-dayer of the series on April 4 at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.