90 players picked in inaugural edition of Bengal Women's T20 Blast

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 2 (ANI): The inaugural edition of Bengal Women's T20 Blast presented by the Cricket Association of Bengal, saw 90 talented women's cricketers from different age groups being picked into six teams at players' draft process on Wednesday at Eden Gardens.
The first-ever players' draft for Women's cricket got off to a classy start with CAB president Avishek Dalmiya delivering the inaugural address with representatives from the respective teams being present at a glitzy affair.
The six clubs participating in the tournament are- East Bengal, Rajasthan Club, Md Sporting, Town, Aryan, and Kalighat Club.
"We are very happy to resume our local tournaments, which were stalled because of the recent Covid19 surge. We have been contemplating over the last few years that club cricket in the women's segment must begin," said CAB President Avishek Dalmiya in a statement.
"We tried to start this tournament last season but due to COVID, we had to cancel at the last moment. We are extremely happy to start the tournament this year. It's not going to be a one-off tournament and we will be working keenly to make it better with each passing year," he further said.
"This time we couldn't organise the tournament at Eden Gardens as we have international matches coming up. The pool was created on the basis of the players' statistics so that there's complete transparency. I thank the clubs for coming forward," he added.
Speaking about the tournament, Avishek Dalmiya further said, "We want to create an ecosystem and want the players to be taken care of. Women's cricket in the country is progressing. This tournament will prepare our girls for any national-level premiere T20 tournament and give them the mindset to fight it out in the shortest format of the game. The tournament will be streamed live on Fancode and we aim to make it bigger in the coming years."
The tournament will start on February 7 at BCA Kalyani and will conclude on February 23. All the matches will be streamed live on Fancode.
CAB Jt secy Debabrata Das, Tour, Fixture and Technical committee chairman Subhankar Ghosh Dastidar, Players' benevolent and benefit fund committee chairman Santanu Mitra, Women's National selector Mithu Mukherjee, Women's cricket committee chairman Shyama Dey (Shaw), Women's Selection Committee chairman Chandana Mukherjee and BCCI match referee Moumita Chakraborty were also present during the event. (ANI)