Bangladesh to play 50 matches in First Women's FTP
Bangladesh women's cricket team got a total of 50 matches in two formats of cricket-ODI and T20 as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the first women's Future Tours Programme (FTP) on Tuesday, reports BSS.
The FTP contains a total of 301 international matches between 2022 and 2025. The cycle has already begun - in May this year - and runs until the conclusion of the ODI World Cup in 2025.
The calendar for women's cricket in the three-year cycle comprises seven Tests, 159 T20Is and 135 ODIs, which include fixtures for the 2022-25 ICC Women's Championship, the qualification pathway for the next ODI World Cup in India.
Since Bangladesh Women's team is yet to get Test status, they got just T20I and ODI matches in the FTP.
In next December, the Tigress will tour New Zealand for three ODIs and as many T20 Internationals. In January, 2023 Bangladesh will visit Sri Lanka also for same number of matches in ODI and T20 format.
Bangladesh then will host India for three ODIs and as many T20Is in June and then Pakistan for the same number of ODI and T20 matches in October. After the Pakistan series, Bangladesh will tour South Africa at the end of December, 2023.
In 2024, Bangladesh will host Australia in March and Ireland in December while they will play three ODIs and as many T20s against Australia. Bangladesh will also play three ODIs and three T20Is against West Indies in their last series of FTP.
As part of the 2022-25 ICC Women's Championship, teams will play three-match bilateral ODI series to try and qualify the 2025 World Cup. The addition of Bangladesh and Ireland makes the ICC Women's Championship a 10-team tournament this time, compared to eight in the previous cycle, ICC said.
Each team will play eight ODI series (four home and four away) and the top five in the standings will earn direct qualification to the 2025 World Cup, along with hosts India. The bottom four teams in the ICC Women's Championship will play four other teams in a qualifying tournament for the final two spots in the 2025 World Cup.