The U-19 World Cup Of Women Gets A Global Platform

According to a report published in NDTV Sports, as the U-19 World Cup for Women starts in South Africa’s Benoni on Saturday, the women shall finally get their much-awaited recognition across the global platform.  This event between sixteen teams was supposed to take place in 2021 but the uprise of the pandemic made it happen this year. Where the men’s U-19 World Cup had started way back in 1988, 2023 shall be the first time in history to give this same recognition to the women’s team.

Undoubtedly, over the years women’s cricket has grown hugely. Now, all it requires is recognition at the global level so that more talent can come up. It requires a push so that women’s cricket too can go further.

In four different venues in Potchefstroom and Benoni, forty-one games shall be played in this tournament. The participating teams in this tournament are South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Australia, England, Ireland, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and West Indies. All these teams have got qualified automatically. With them, the team of The United States Of America, Rwanda, UAE, Indonesia, and Scotland shall join too.

U-19 World Cup
image source:https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-96962979,imgsize-164432,width-400,resizemode-4/96962979.jpg

Team India has been placed in Group C alongside the host nation South Africa, UAE, and Scotland. Team India captained by Shefali Verma is going to begin their journey in the World Cup opening game against the very composed South African side on Saturday. Other than Shefali, another international player who is in team India is Richa Ghosh. Before the opening game, the captains of the sixteen participating teams gathered at Johannesburg in front of Nelson Mandela Square for the photo session.

All these upcoming stars of Indian women’s cricket also had the opportunity for interacting with Mithali Raj and learn from her huge experiences. Mithali had shared with these players her input on keeping control over nerves during the matches, leadership, coming up from losses, and growing together as a player and a team.

After the meeting was over, team India’s skipper Shefali told the reporters that it makes her feel that she is about to become a part of something historic and new. The photo shoot with the captains of the participating teams was indeed the best moment for her so far. She feels an air of festivities and is very excited about team India’s game on Saturday. In the lead until this event, India has also battled a bilateral series against South Africa. 

Shefali says that team Australia has been a dominant one at the senior level and they are expecting the same too in their level. it has been a very inspiring moment for her to meet the captains of the participating teams in person during the photo session. Getting a glimpse of the coveted trophy from close builds fire in her to win the games ahead. 

The captain of the Australian team Rhys McKenna has said that the past few days since they traveled to South Africa it has been very hectic for the team. They have either been playing warm-up games or been in training. The morale of their team is high and it has been a great opportunity for her too in being able to meet the captains of the other teams. They are very excited about Saturday.