Women’s cricket eyes future with new-style event

DUBAI: An innovative women’s cricket tournament grouping established stars with emergingnation players starts this week as the sport looks to expand globally and outgrow its reliance on the men’s game.

The FairBreak Invitational, featuring England captain Heather Knight, West Indies skipper Stafanie Taylor and Pakistan’s Sana Mir, opens on Wednesday accompanied by calls for better funding for the sport.

Women’s cricket has emerged as a marketing hit in recent years with international finals played at sold-out stadiums, including a record 86,000-plus at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the T20 World Cup decider in March 2020.

Progress was halted by the pandemic but the sport bounced back with a successful World Cup in New Zealand, Australia beating Knight’s England at a sold-out Hagley Oval last month.

Knight, whose Barmy Armysponsored

FairBreak team includes players from Vanuatu and Rwanda, said it was time that women’s cricket ended its financial reliance on the men’s game.

“I think there are discrepancies and certain things in the women’s game,” she told journalists at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday.

“Sometimes the funding for example relies on the men’s game which I think needs to change.