UAE teenager Mahika Gaur thrilled to join cricket elite at FairBreak Invitational

When an administrative oversight by Gujarat Giants deprived Mahika Gaur a place in the first Women’s Premier League, it was a mixed blessing for the UAE teenager.

It meant the 16-year-old left-arm pacer would miss out on playing in the WPL, whose inaugural edition was completed last week when Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals in the final.

The female version of the Indian Premier League has already altered the landscape of the women’s game, and is likely to become the franchise event in which players most want to feature, much like the IPL in the men’s sphere.

Gaur was the subject of a bid by the Giants on auction day back in February, only for the team to be told they had exhausted their overseas player quota.

So no party for the towering seam bowler, but at least it meant she did not have to ask for any more time off school.

“When I found out I had been picked up for the auction I was really excited,” Gaur said. “I didn’t actually watch the auction as we had training that day, but I checked my phone after.

“My sister had sent a message saying, ‘You won’t understand, just watch the video.’ I watched the video and saw that a team had bid for me but they had already done their quota of international players.

“That was a bittersweet moment for me. It gave me great confidence to see a team had bid for me, so I didn’t take it in a negative way. Hopefully I can play in that at some point in the future.

“Everyone thought [the WPL] would be big, but not on the scale that it was. For sure, it is a goal of mine to play in that at some point in the future.”

For both male and female players in the UAE, the path to leading franchise competitions is becoming increasingly navigable.

The men’s players benefited from the advent of the