Kuwait Cricket Board’s appointee Muthumudalige Pushpakumara (National Coach & Development Manager) along with Husnain Arshad (Head of Women’s Cricket), Ghayour Ahmed (Head Coach) and Tariq Rasool Shah (Development Coach) have selected 7 women’s players for national contracts for the year (2021) based on ICC eligibility, performance, talent, fitness, attitude, discipline and future prospects of continued residency in the State of Kuwait for stability and consistency in the national squad of women’s.
In a historic move, the pathbreaking step of giving national contracts to Women’s players is the first ever following the mens contracts which was initiated last year (2020) by Kuwait Cricket board led by the President Haider Farman, Vice President Faisal Al Marzouk and Director General Sajid Mohammad Ashraf and the board is hopeful that such a move for women’s cricketers will pave the way for both domestic and international development of Kuwait women’s cricketers as it will give them the much required boost and attract more young girls in the process to semi-professionally / professionally join the game.
Apart from the 7 selected women for national contracts, the entire women’s squad will also benefit from match fees for ICC & ACC tournaments as well as bilateral series matches. In addition, there will be other monetary benefits such as winning bonuses for international tournaments / bilateral series as well.
Following are the national Women contracted players for the season 2021:
Category A:
1 AMNA TARIQ
2 PRIYADA MURALI
3 MARIAMMA HYDER
4 SIOBHAN GOMEZ
5 KHADIJA KHALIL
6 MARYYAM ASHRAF
Category B:
7 ZEEFA JILANI
Amna Tariq has retained her captaincy of the Kuwait Womens National team after having led Kuwait from the front in all departments to win against Oman and Qatar in a memorable triangular series in Q1 of 2020.
The number of contracted players for women’s will also increase over time based on exceptional performers / talent from domestic cricket and the target is to take the women’s contracted players to as many as 20 by 2023/24 cycle.
The national camp of the women’s probables squad for the season 2021 is ongoing and will resume full fledged once the State of Kuwait lifts the ongoing curfew which currently restricts the national probables to conduct any practice session post 5pm.
Kuwait Womens National team has an exciting international season of 2021 coming up with two hugely anticipated tournaments:
1.) Asia Cup Qualifiers
Host – Malaysia
When: Q3 / Q4
2.) ICC T-20 World Cup Qualifiers (Asia)
When: October / Q4
Congratulations to all the 7 contracted players and here’s wishing them and the entire national women’s probables squad all the luck for the season 2021 and may they bring glory to the State of Kuwait.
