Day 28: Bonjour France

 France’s women’s cricketers will take part in their first ICC qualification tournament later in the year. In August, they travel to Scotland hoping to gain a place in the next round of qualification for the T20 World Cup.

Today they announced the 18 players who will train throughout the year and will hope to represent their nation.

The players named were Lara Armas, Sabine Baron, Emmanuelle Brelivet, Cindy Breteche, Tarra Britton, Alix Brodin, Maëlle Cargouet, Emma Chance, Thea Graham, Jennifer King, Louise Lestavel, Sabine Lieury, Magali Marchello, Sophie Pecaud, Beatrice Pierre, Tracy Rodiguez, Marie Violleau, Irma Vrignaud.

With the T20 format open to more international teams is an excellent start to make cricket a more global sport. For a start, there hasn’t been cricket at the Olympics since 1900. France were silver medalists one of the more bizarre pieces of cricket trivia.

Cricket has a reputation as a sport that shrinks those at the top table, where other sports are expanding. If the Netherlands doesn’t qualify for the football World Cup, it isn’t down to lack of opportunity; if their cricket team fails, it isn’t always down to performance on the field.

That women’s cricket will be at next years Commonwealth games is fascinating. With fixtures due to be played at a world-class venue like Edgbaston will be all the better. The Birmingham situated ground was the scene of the first World Cup final.

This won’t be the first time cricket has been part of the Commonwealth Games, but will be the first time in the T20 format and the first involving women. I have read somewhere that Birmingham 2022 will be the first multi-sport competition to offer more medals for women than men.

France will have some tough competition in Scotland, with the home side will be strong contenders. Also involved will be Ireland who has some outstanding players. The Netherlands will be no pushovers, Germany are the other teams involved.

Germany’s women hosted international games against Austria last year. With the global pandemic preventing sport from being played worldwide, it was a welcome relief to watch some international cricket.