Sugetha Kalyanaraman Chandhrasekar becomes the first USA Cricketer to be a part of the multi-nation Women’s Global Development Squad (WGDS) which will play six T20 fixtures in England organised in association with the ECB.
A leg-spinning all-rounder from Irvine, California – from playing loads of backyard cricket with guy friends and cousins in Chennai (India) to being one of the biggest ambassadors of Women Cricket in the United States – Sugetha’s journey is a story of making dreams come true. A lot of credit for her success goes to Sugetha’s perennial passion and overwhelming support and motivation from her husband Srinivas Raghavan.
This is the third WGDS program marshaled by the ICC; with the previous ones having toured Australia in November 2018 and England in July 2018.
The ICC media release states – “The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced this third WGDS squad today, as a part of its continued efforts to provide exposure to players from outside the leading countries and improve the standard of the women’s game. The WGDS tour of England is being organised in association with the ECB.”
Players from seven different countries have been included in this WGDS squad led by the Pakistan star-batter Javeria Khan – to face-off against the world-class players like the Kiwi Suzie bates, West-Indies all-rounder Stephanie Taylor and South-Africans Marizanne Kapp, Dane van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee.
This will be a supreme learning curve for players from the not-so-known cricketing nations and their skipper Javeria feels the players in her team will learn a lot during their packed schedule and is hoping to pass on her knowledge to them.
Scotland has the most number of players from one specific team – three;
Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea have two; USA, Germany and Ireland have one.
WGDS squad: Javeria Khan (Pakistan, Captain), Sugetha Kalyanaraman Chandhrasekar (USA), Jahanara Alam and Fargana Hoque (Bangladesh), Christina Gough (Germany), Celeste Raack (Ireland), Denise van Deventer (Netherlands), Brenda Tau and Ravini Oa (Papua New Guinea), Abtaha Maqsood, Hannah Rainey and Becky Glen (Scotland).
