The women’s cricket calendar was released by the ICC. It spans a three-year period and includes 301 matches (seven Tests, 135 ODIs, and 159 T20Is)
The first-ever Women’s Future Tours Programme (FTP), which covers all three game formats, was unveiled by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday. It confirms the bilateral international tours for 10 teams over the period of three years.
The first FTP set by the ICC will include up to 65 international matches for the Indian women’s side over a three-year cycle from May 2022 to April 2025.
In the women’s FTP cycle from 2022 to 25 India is scheduled to play two home Test matches. The first game against England will take place in December 2024, and the second game against Australia will be played as part of the tour in December 2024–January 2024.
In this FTP, England will play the most Tests (five), followed by Australia with four and South Africa with three. These four women’s teams are the only teams playing Test cricket during this period.
India has already faced Sri Lanka in three WODIs and three WT20Is since the FTP started in May 2022.
Additionally, the T20 Asia Cup will resume in 2021 after a delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It can be done this year during the first half of October. Its location is yet to be decided. In the final of the women’s Asia Cup, which was played in Malaysia in 2018, Bangladesh defeated India on the final ball.
In 2024–2024, India will host a total of four home series, which will include 23 international matches. Before New Zealand’s tour in October for the same number of fixtures in all formats, South Africa will start India’s season in September 2024 with three ODIs and three T20Is. After a hiatus of more than a month, Australia will arrive in December 2024 and play a Test, three ODIs, and three T20Is before England makes their way to India in December for a Test and three T20Is.
There is a gap in the FTP from March to May for all teams following the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February 2024, which is planned to act as a window for both the inaugural women’s IPL and the FairBreak Invitational T20 competition in Hong Kong.
The BCCI is now planning to hold the women’s IPL in March as a separate event before the men’s chapter begins in April. The inter-zonal one-day competition is set to conclude the women’s domestic season, which has been pushed by a month in preparation for the women’s IPL.
In total, the FTP comprises a T20I tri-series leading up to the 2024 T20 World Cup, 36 T20Is, and 27 ODIs for India as part of their home-and-away bilateral engagements. As part of the FTP, India has already played three ODIs and three T20Is in Sri Lanka in June and July of this year.
The FTP officially began in May 2022 and will last until the end of April 2025. The next task for India is a three-ODI and three-T20I tour of England in September, followed by a five-T20I home series against Australia to close off the year.
Before the T20 World Cup, which will also be held in South Africa in February of 2024, India will take a flight to South Africa at the beginning of the year for a tri-series of T20I matches with West Indies. Then, in June 2024, India will play three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 internationals in Bangladesh before returning home to play South Africa, New Zealand, England, and Australia during their domestic season.
India’s cricket schedule for the year 2024 is limited. Australia’s next assignment after they depart India in early 2024 will be a reciprocal tour of their country for three ODIs at the end of the year, after which they will return home to host the West Indies for three ODIs and three T20Is in December 2024 and Ireland for three ODIs and three T20Is in January 2025 in preparation for their own 50-over World Cup in April.
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