London, Jan 27 (IANS): The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Thursday announced that the 2022 women's hundred competition has been shortened by eight matches to avoid a clash with the Commonwealth Games (CWG) at Birmingham.
With the women's T20 tournament at the Commonwealth Games scheduled to run from July 29 to August 7 at Edgbaston in Birmingham, the women's Hundred event will begin from August 11. Due to the Commonwealth Games 2022, there will be six group matches in the women's Hundred competition this time as opposed to eight in the men's edition.
"With a record-breaking 267,000 people attending the women's matches across The Hundred last year, 2022 promises to be an incredibly exciting summer for women's cricket," said a release from the tournament.
The 100-ball competition will begin with defending men's champions Southern Brave facing Welsh Fire at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton on August 3. In the women's event, reigning champions Oval Invincibles will be up against Northern Superchargers in the opening match, which will be the first men's and women's double-header of the 2022 competition.
The group stages will end on August 31 before the second and third-placed men's and women's teams face each other at the Ageas Bowl in the Eliminator on September 2. The women's and men's finals of the Hundred will take place on September 3 at the Lord's Cricket Ground.
Tickets will go on general sale on April 20 on the official website. For those who brought tickets to the inaugural 2021 event, there will be an initial priority window to buy tickets in late February. A second ticket window will open on March 31 for anyone who has signed up at the official website of the Hundred.
Last year, India's top women cricketers took part in the inaugural edition of the Hundred. Jemimah Rodrigues turned out for Northern Superchargers while Smriti Mandhana played for Southern Brave.
Current India T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur featured for Manchester Originals while all-rounder Deepti Sharma turned out for London Spirit and Shafali Verma represented Birmingham Phoenix.