"VAN" (Sports Desk - 25.04.2024) :: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is pleased to announce Pakistan legend, Sana Mir, as ambassador for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, supported by Dream11. Sana, who represented her country in 226 internationals – 137 as captain – will be keeping a close eye on the 10 participating teams and their players in the two-week long tournament.
The former skipper is looking forward to an intense battle for the two finalist spots for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year, as the action in Abu Dhabi gets underway from 25 April to 7 May.
Sana is delighted with her role as ambassador and is looking forward to watching the competitive cricket as teams look to secure their places in the main event. She said: “Other than the big qualification opportunity for two teams, the tournament will provide excellent exposure to the Associate Member teams and their players. The women’s game has become more and more competitive in recent years and the 10 nations involved in the Qualifier possess a number of quality players.”
As a captain and player, she has experience in participating in a number of qualifying events for Pakistan and has some fond memories, particularly the 2008 edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifying Series where her 70 runs and nine wickets bagged her the joint Player of the Series award.
"My aim is to talk to the various teams and players during the Qualifier and help guide them on how to deal with the pressure of these events and what it takes to succeed. Pakistan had a great record in these events, and I in particular have fond memories of the 2008 edition of the 50 over World Cup qualifier event that I played,” Sana continued.
As Pakistan’s star all-rounder and go-to performer in her 14-year career, she scored 2432 international runs while her off-break bowling earned her 240 international wickets.
The 38-year-old has stayed in touch with the game since her retirement and feels that the gap between the top ranked teams and Associate Member teams is beginning to close and that is due to more playing opportunities for the players through the ICC pathway events.
“The players are playing a lot more and getting decent exposure through their domestic tournaments and the ICC pathway programme. For women’s cricket to grow further, the regional events and the Qualifier are incredibly important. While Sri Lanka and Ireland will probably be favourites to qualify alongside Thailand, teams like Scotland, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Uganda and Zimbabwe surely have the potential to cause major upsets and make their way through to the semis and eventually to the final as well.
"I am particularly keen to see the progress of some of the Zimbabwe players whom I worked with in my mentorship role during the inaugural ICC Women’s U19 T20 World Cup in South Africa last year.”
Sana has rich experience of the T20 World Cup with a total of 24 matches played, she also captained Pakistan in five editions. In these fixtures, Sana scored 234 runs and took 18 wickets.
Sana feels that the T20 format continues to evolve, with the players in the women’s game also looking at scoring faster and batting more aggressively than before.
“The T20 format continues to grow in terms of tactics and playing style and the format remains tough to predict. The batters continue to raise the standard of the game while the bowlers have also developed some great skills at combatting the big hits and bigger hitters.
"The power game has surely become important in women’s cricket as well and players like Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu have created a big legacy with their swashbuckling style. I am looking forward to seeing her unleash some big hits and big scores in the tournament. It will also be interesting to see how the teams cope with the conditions in Abu Dhabi, the pitches in the UAE can help slow bowlers at times and the hot weather will also need to be taken into consideration.”
The 10 teams competing in the Qualifier have been divided into two groups of five each, the top two from each group will enter the semi-finals with the semi-final winners confirming their trip to Bangladesh.
Scotland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda and the USA feature in Group A, while Ireland, the Netherlands, the UAE, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe make up Group B.
The timings for the night matches have been revised, instead of 19h00 local time, the matches will now start at 19h30.
The tournament begins at the Tolerance Oval and Zayed Cricket Stadium Abu Dhabi on Thursday, 25 April.
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