Five teams are in the fray with 147 Goan girls being part of the players auction for the first-ever Goa Women’s Premier League T20 extravaganza beginning on April 1, announced Goa Cricket Association secretary Rohan Gauns Dessai on Tuesday.
Geno Dragons, Celeste Super Women, Manas Panjim Gymkhana, MCC Estillo Legends and Venture XI will be the participating teams, who can also bring in outstation players for the T20 tournament from April 1 to 9. All matches, some of which will be under floodlights, will be played at GCA academy ground at Porvorim.
“We thought that women’s cricket in Goa needed a boost and so we are hopeful that this T20 tournament will lift the standard of our girls who somehow could not come into the reckoning for the BCCI’s ongoing Women’s IPL T20. Only Shikha Pandey from Goa is playing in ongoing WPL and I congratulate her. India World Cup team member Shikha will also play in the Goa WPL” said Dessai.
Goa women’s T20 tournament, not yet deemed to be an annual feature, will be organised by ‘Vinayak Decorators’ with GCA providing the venue and floodlights. The technical support in the form of umpires and match referee is also not yet committed to by GCA but it’s based on availability, stated Dessai during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile disclosing some of the “unanimous” decisions by the managing committee, Dessai said that Dr Ketan Bhatikar’s life-membership will not be terminated based on AGM mandate. “We will serve him a showcase notice as some of his acts were wrong and we will ask him for clarification. As such the decision to terminate of his life-membership has been put on hold,” explained Dessai and emphasised that whatever discrepancies were expressed, were not about Dr Bhatikar’s medical credibility, but were administrative lapses pertaining to an edition of Goa Corporate League held seven years ago when he was the Commissioner of the league.
The other decisions are:
•A MoU signed by GCA with Margao Cricket Club academy whereby the collaboration will pave the way for full-time academy, nets and pitches facilities
•Commencing the preparations for next season with a specific series of camp from April where Ranji Trophy players, U-19s and women’s senior category players will undergo a training regimen based on their area of specialisation. “This is part of an endeavour by the association to stepup the standard of Goan players,” adds Desai.
