Women’s T20I Cricket will be the showstopper at Los Pinos Polo Club

Astonishing it may sound but the Women’s category in the 2018 South American Championships will be the 10th overall edition that will be held at Los Pinos Polo Club ground in Bogota, Colombia in Aug 2018.

The Men’s category has been present for a even longer period of time with Argentina hosting the 14th edition in 2017. Such is the rich history of both Men’s and Women’s cricket in the South American region. Pretty good it sounds that it has been arranged nicely for the past decade and provides the region’s nations much required International cricket exposure.

Most neutrals would only relate to Argentina Men’s team being part of major ICC tournament qualifiers and WCL divisions over the years but Cricket has a good presence in the rest of the countries in the region as well. Many still wouldn’t know that Marylebone Cricket Club has now toured the South American region twice in two years, and has played matches against the Men’s squads from the region’s nations.

Women’s cricket has not always been much popular among all the Associate member nations in South America, with most of the countries not having the adequate player numbers or domestic exposure for growth of Women’s cricket in the region. However, countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico have been competing in the Women’s category in the South American Championships since the 2000’s.

The past couple of seasons has seen significant development being done in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico & Peru for Women’s Cricket and it only bodes well for the future of the sport, now with International T20I status recognition being provided to all T20 matches played between ICC members for Women’s cricket, effective 01st Jul 2018 and for Men’s cricket, effective 01st Jan 2019.

Argentina Women’s team have been the most successful in all the editions held until 2017, having won the tournament more than 4 times compared to 2 wins by Brazil. The 2015 edition was the first time the Women’s tournament got held at the same time as the Men’s competition and has been happening since.

Argentina, however will not be participating in the 2018 edition and the Women’s tournament will be contested between Brazil, Mexico, Chile & Peru. And to add to that, the matches will carry T20I status for the member countries. Disappointing that Argentina Women’s squad will miss out on some Team tanking points.

Mexico Women’s squad for the tournament is being supported by Tech giant, Tech Mahindra, which speaks well for future sponsorships/fundings depending upon their partnership for Mexico Cricket Association.

So much cricket has happened in the past decade in the Women’s category in the region, but perhaps the added status eligibility brings something more on the plate for the teams participating in 2018, with the prospect of good results resulting in good rankings for the team when ICC release their Global rankings for Women’s T20I Team’s.

The event will also showcase Cricket Colombia’s hosting capabilities as they look forward to becoming an Associate member of ICC in the near future.

Cricket Colombia are expected to announce the tournament proper schedule and details soon and from a neutral perspective, it’d be an even bigger initiative if something on the lines of Live Streaming could be arranged for the tournament for the whole World to see and educate itself on what has been a region not much talked about in the global Associate landscape.