NEWS
Follow UsThe Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will start on October 3 (Thursday), with Bangladesh taking on Scotland in the tournament's first match. On that very day, Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka. Both matches will be played at Sharjah. Dubai is the second venue for the marquee event, which was supposed to be hosted by Bangladesh in Bangladesh.
However, political unrest in the country meant that the Cup was shifted to UAE while Bangladesh remained the host. The Tigresses skipper Nigar Sultana said that though they greatly miss not playing it in their own country, they hoped to have support in UAE as well.
“I'm expecting a lot of spectators because in Sharjah there are a lot of Bangladeshis there. And playing in this kind of event, I think more people will come to watch us and support,” Sultana said during the Captain’s Day event on the eve of the World Cup on October 2 (Wednesday).
Australia Captain Alyssa Healy, on the other hand, wanted to win the title for a record seventh time. According to her, there is no such thing as defending a title, it is always about winning it. The last title that the Aussies won was under the captaincy of Meg Lanning, who has now retired from international cricket.
“10 teams are sitting on the stage today that deserve to be here and have a real shot of winning this World Cup. You don't come here to defend a title, that's not what a World Cup is about, you come here to win it,” Healy said.
West Indies Captain Hayley Matthews was determined to give her best. “You play all year long preparing and this is the pinnacle of where you want to be as a team and where you want to be competing,” said the 26-year-old.
Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian captain, though, was all about learning every day. “I think learning is something which is never going to stop, every day is a learning day. Every day I'm going and learning and getting experience from every game. I am happy with where our team is, like how our team is working hard to achieve small, small things,” said the skipper of the runners-up team from the 2020 T20 World Cup.
For English leader Heather Knight, the challenge has been keeping up with the ever-evolving captaincy. “I think captaincy is always a constant challenge. I think as you're there more, you learn to get your messages across in slightly different ways using the people around you. The team's constantly evolving, which is a place where you're keeping things fresh and finding different ways to say things,” said the winner of the latest The Hundred tournament.
Sophie Devine, who will be leading New Zealand after a very disappointing year in 2024, banked on her fast bowlers to deliver. “We've got many young fast bowlers coming through. And again, their development has been massive the last 12 - 18 months so certainly looking forward to seeing what sort of bowlers they can turn into.”
South Africa, who lost the final last year, feels that if they take one game at a time, they will be able to go the distance this time around.
“I think last year was great, but we're just looking to take it one game at a time. Obviously, a very difficult pool, but hopefully, we can make the semi-finals, and then anything can happen from that,” said Laura Wolvaardt.
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