Ahead Of Inaugural U-19 Women's World Cup, Shantha Rangaswamy Wants BCCI To Revise Rule For Female Cricketers

BCCI Apex Council member Shantha Rangaswamy has written to the Board to revise the hospitalisation reimbursement policy for female cricketers besides seeking a rule change to ensure "the best available team" for the inaugural Women's U-19 World Cup next year. The ICC recently announced that age group World Cup will finally take place next year after it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BCCI sources told PTI that the top brass has received a letter from Rangaswamy covering the existing U-19 rule for women cricketers and the hospitalisation scheme for senior team members.

"BCCI has a policy that in the domestic U-19 tournaments, a player who has played for four years cannot participate in the U-19 championship even if the age is well below 19. This ostensibly has been done to produce more cricketers," wrote Rangaswamy in the letter which is in PTI's possession.

From the senior India team, the likes of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh will be eligible to play the U-19 ICC event next year. "When it comes to World Cup, it is to be ensured that all those who have not completed 19 years are made eligible for selection, irrespective of the number of years they have played in the domestic U-19 tournaments.

"Whether this implies that in the World Cup year, this 4-year rule is relaxed to allow them to play in domestic tournament for selectors to watch them play is to be decided.

"As the 4-year rule is primarily meant to allow fresh crop of players to emerge in domestic cricket, there is a strong need to relax this rule at least during World Cup year to make all players (yet to complete 19 years) eligible for India selection with the sole aim of putting up the strongest team. This may kindly be examined and favourable