ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan gears up to host the second match of the Women’s Exhibition League, English batter Tamsin Beaumont said on Thursday that a Women’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) would help take cricket “to the next level.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) held the first of the three women’s exhibition matches on International Women’s Day on March 8. Former Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof led the Amazon squad while star all-rounder Nida Dar led the Super Women squad.
Dar’s Super Women thumped the Amazons by eight wickets, helped by an impressive half-century by South African batter Laura Wolvaardt.
Former cricketer and ex-PCB chairman Ramiz Raja last year said the board would launch a woman’s PSL— a dedicated T20 league for women cricketers— but did not get into the specifics of the timing of the event.
The new PCB management has not commented on the matter yet.
Speaking to Arab News, Beaumont said she has witnessed Pakistan women’s team grow with the passage of time and give stellar performances over the years.
“Every time I play them, there are a couple of new youngsters who are taking the game to the next level, and I think a Pakistan Super League would just accelerate that,” she said.
She added that emerging players emerging players will also get the opportunity to play more competitive cricket in the PSL with overseas players. “They are just going to improve so much quicker,” Beaumont said.
The English cricketer heaped praises on some of the Pakistani women cricketers, saying that it was great for Pakistan that Muneeba Ali was such an attacking batter.
“Tuba [Hassan] is an excellent leg spinner, and she will develop very quickly, and Fatima Sana has outstanding character, and she wants to be in the battle,” Beaumont added.
Danielle Nicole Wyatt, another English batter who also plays for the Amazons, said young cricketers benefit when they share the dressing room with overseas players.
“Tournaments like these are going to be huge for someone like Muneeba Ali and she’s only going to benefit from sharing a dressing room with the likes of me and Tammy [Beaumont] and all the other overseas players,” Wyatt told Arab News.
Wyatt said she’s heard rumors of a women’s PSL being held, adding that it would be a “great experience” for cricketers like her and Beaumont.
“We have been around in the international circuit for years now and we have played a lot of international cricket and it’s a great opportunity to come here and experience [it],” she added.
She spoke highly about the current Women’s League matches in Pakistan.
“It’s so important, these games are really going to help women’s cricket in Pakistan because each game has a significance, women empowerment, breast cancer awareness, and women’s education,” she said. “And it feels good to be able to raise awareness.”
Beaumont spoke highly of the Pakistani cricketers, mainly Sidra Nawaz and Fatima Sana, adding that overseas the former was “kind of a tour guide” while the latter is “really youthful and has a really cheeky kind of personality.”
“We had a team meal on the first night and she [Nawaz] was ordering all the food so yeah, they have been a food gang around us, yeah,” she said.
