PESHAWAR, Aug 31 (Alliance News): National selector Pakistan Cricket Board Marina Iqbal Thursday said that they would short-list 50 to 60 players from each of the Peshawar and Abbottabad Regions for the three forms of teams U19, Emerging and Senior Teams.
Talking to Alliance News, Marina Iqbal said that they held trials in both Peshawar and Abbottabad Regions and the names of the short-listed 50 to 60 players for each region would be announced shortly by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Pakistan’s top Women Level-III Coach and Cricket Coordinator for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hajra Sarwar, male coaches Imran and Rehmat Gul were also present. She said open trials were conducted to select women cricketers in three different categories including U19, Emerging, and Senior.
Marina Iqbal, who herself represented Pakistan, said that good talented players are coming up in women cricket and hopefully some talented players would be part of the three different formats teams.
Marina Iqbal is a Pakistani cricket commentator and former cricketer, was a right-arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed batter. She appeared in 36 One Day Internationals and 42 Twenty20 Internationals for Pakistan between 2009 and 2017.
She said it is golden opportunity for women cricketers to be part of the trials and do their efforts to select. She said the Pakistan Cricket Board was now giving central contracts even at the District and Regional levels which would also boost women cricket in the country.
It is a good chance for the women cricketers to appear in the trials for the selection of U19 and Senior teams as well from Peshawar Region.
She said, the Pakistan Cricket Board, as part of its continuous effort to unearth women cricketers at the grassroots level, held nationwide women cricket trials, across eight cricket academies from Aug 23 to 31.
These trials provide an exceptional platform for talented female cricketers from various age categories to showcase their skills and progress to the higher levels of the game, Marina Iqbal said.
The trials, she said, were conducted for three age groups including U19, in which players who were born on or after September 1, 2004 were eligible, an Emerging Team and Seniors categories respectively.
About the trials, she said, it would help identify talent and select squads for Pakistan Emerging and Pakistan U19 teams.
Pakistan Emerging side will compete against West Indies Emerging team at home in October this year, while Pakistan U19 will feature in a triangular event involving Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Bangladesh in January 2024.
She disclosed that PCB had recently awarded first-ever domestic contracts to 74 women cricketers among them four players Mahnoor, Alveena, Zainab and Tehzeeb, players hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, got the central contract. With the nationwide trials, we are eagerly poised to bring in a new wave of talented individuals forward.
“We have a great and exciting amount of women’s cricket events ahead, and these trials will help us identify splendid talent that the selectors can consider for the national teams’ squads,” Marina Iqbal said.
She said more than a hundred girls from Peshawar and 120 players from Abbottabad Region took part in the trials and showed their best talent. “We are trying hard to bring forward the cricketers. It is expected that the girls of Pakhtunkhwa, like the male players, will also make themselves at the world level in cricket.