Former England Women captain Charlotte Edwards has on Sunday (May 3) expressed her fears about the potential impact on the women’s game in a wake of the postponement of The Hundred, saying it is a "worrying time" for women's cricket and it can lose the momentum gained.
The launch of England and Wales Cricket Board’s new 100-ball tournament has been delayed until 2021 due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. There were high hopes that the eight city-based franchises lead to a major boost in exposure for the women’s cricket while The Hundred was the only source of income for many women cricketers in England this year except centrally contracted players.
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Edwards, who was signed up as head coach of Southern Brave, told BBC World Service: “There are so many mixed emotions really. Obviously, it's the right decision but it was such an important year for women's cricket on the back of the hugely successful World Cup in Australia, where nearly 90,000 people watched the game.”
She continued, “We just really felt the momentum was with the women's game and we were also going to introduce contracts this summer for 40 professional cricketers, and it's all been put on hold at the moment. A lot of people are out of work as well. A lot of players were hoping to have contracts for the Hundred, which were quite lucrative for some of them, and everyone's going to miss out which is so unfortunate and at such an important time for women's cricket.”
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Edwards signed off by saying, “For the players, it's a worrying time. But we have been guaranteed that the ECB will still go ahead with their £20m investment into the women's game, which is something that is obviously keeping us all going at the moment, because this year was going to be hugely exciting for the game and important, and it's good that it will go ahead - but it's it being delayed that is going to prove to be a problem for some of the players. It's not ideal, but everyone's health and wellbeing is more important at this time.”
(With BBC Inputs)
