Sana Mir named ambassador of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier

Staff Report

 LAHORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday named Pakistan legend Sana Mir as ambassador for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, supported by Dream11. Sana, who represented her country in 226 internationals –––– 137 as captain ––––– will be keeping a close eye on the 10 participating teams and their players in the two-week long tournament. The former skipper is looking forward to an intense battle for the two finalist spots for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year, as the action in Abu Dhabi gets underway from April 25 to May 7. Sana is delighted with her role as ambassador and is looking forward to watching the competitive cricket as teams look to secure their places in the main event. She said: “Other than the big qualification opportunity for two teams, the tournament will provide excellent exposure to the Associate Member teams and their players. The women’s game has become more and more competitive in recent years and the 10 nations involved in the Qualifier possess a number of quality players.” As a captain and player, she has experience in participating in a number of qualifying events for Pakistan and has some fond memories, particularly the 2008 edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifying Series where her 70 runs and nine wickets bagged her the joint Player of the Series award.

“My aim is to talk to the various teams and players during the Qualifier and help guide them on how to deal with the pressure of these events and what it takes to succeed. Pakistan had a great record in these events, and I in particular have fond memories of the 2008 edition of the 50 over World Cup qualifier event that I played,” Sana continued. As Pakistan’s star all-rounder and go-to performer in her 14-year career, she scored 2432 international runs while her off-break bowling earned her 240 international wickets. The 38-year-old has stayed in touch with the game since her retirement and feels that the gap between the top ranked teams and Associate Member teams is beginning to close and that is due to more playing opportunities for the players through the ICC pathway events. Sana has rich experience of the T20 World Cup with a total of 24 matches played, she also captained Pakistan in five editions. In these fixtures, Sana scored 234 runs and took 18 wickets. Sana feels that the T20 format continues to evolve, with the players in the women’s game also looking at scoring faster and batting more aggressively than before.

The 10 teams competing in the Qualifier have been divided into two groups of five each, the top two from each group will enter the semi-finals with the semi-final winners confirming their trip to Bangladesh. Scotland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda and the USA feature in Group A, while Ireland, the Netherlands, the UAE, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe make up Group B. The tournament begins at the Tolerance Oval and Zayed Cricket Stadium Abu Dhabi on Thursday (April 25).