Harmanpreet Kaur Makes A Special Appeal To BCCI Ahead Of 1st Ever Lord's Test In Women's Cricket

Harmanpreet Kaur and Rajeev Shukla [Source: AFP]

India Women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur has made a special appeal to Jay Shah-chaired ICC and the top brass of cricket to organize many more Tests for women's cricketers, as the India Women vs England Women one-off Test at the iconic Lord's is set to take place on July 10. 

Harmanpreet Kaur believes that there should be more games like this, and there should be a focus on red-ball cricket rather than only tournaments organized for the white-ball format. Kaur thinks that this has been one of the most neglected aspects of women's cricket.

Harmanpreet Kaur makes an appeal for more red-ball games

Kaur, while speaking to Cricbuzz, shared the importance of playing Test matches while pleading with the higher authorities to make it happen much more often. 

“As a cricketer, we definitely want to be part of many Test matches. But I think that’s totally the higher authorities’ call. Till now, I have seen all the highs and lows, and I have seen women’s cricket growing all these years. I think we are in the right hands, and they’re the right ones to take the call," Kaur said.

Harmanpreet specifically asked the Jay Shah orchestrated management them to arrange more red-ball matches since they have much more leisure time as cricketers, and they want to enjoy their game as much as they do in white-ball cricket. 

“But if you ask me as a player, I definitely want to play lots of cricket and don’t want to sit at home doing nothing. We are enjoying our time, we are quite busy, and in between, we are getting opportunities. Last March, we also played one Test, and now tomorrow we’re going to get one more Test. I think things are going the right way and hopefully, in future, we’ll see many more Test matches coming up," Harmanpreet added.

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Kaur addresses limited exposure to Test cricket and the Lord’s dream

Further pointing to the limited exposure of women players in Test cricket, Harmanpreet Kaur pointed out the fact that there have been multiple white-ball domestic tournaments for women cricketers. 

However, the lack of red-ball practice leaves them with a tougher challenge while playing Tests against different nations. Notably, this iconic Lord's Test will be only the seventh Test that the India women's cricket team will be playing in the 2020s.

While also speaking about the first match at Lord's, Kaur said that the Home of Cricket has been a dream, and playing a Test match here makes the entire India women's cricket team happy. 

“It’s a very big moment for all of us. As a captain and as a player, I’m really looking forward to this opportunity. As kids, we always dream about playing Test matches and playing at Lord’s is one of those dreams. I’m so happy that we got this opportunity. All the girls are very excited and, as a team, we’re really looking forward to it," Harmanpreet said.

How realistic is Harmanpreet’s appeal to BCCI?

With the cricket calendar pretty much packed with the men's and women's senior national teams, it is still uncertain whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India will arrange more Test matches for women or not, since the major focus throughout the year remains on the men's team in the Future Tours Programme too. 

Nevertheless, Harmanpreet Kaur's appeal will hopefully be taken into consideration as teams look forward to playing another Test against England. The last Test match that the Indian women played was against Australia, where Australia won the match by 10 wickets.

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