Following Boland’s scintillating run to victory in Cricket SA’s premier Super Sixes tournament a week ago, a new Women’s Cricket Inter-Provincial Tournament featuring eight teams gets underway from Wednesday at the University of Pretoria, in an effort to further improve the state of the women’s game in SA.
2006 and 2007 inter-provincial champion Western Province will be highly favoured to contest the tournament’s matches which are to be played cross-section, to determine the two winners of the groups, who will clash in the final on Sunday, 30 March 2008.
"This revised format has been reintroduced so that the relative strength of the CSA Affiliates could be matched with one another," said CSA Senior Amateur Manager, Max Jordaan. "This format ensures that more fixtures are provided at the appropriate level.
"All the national team players were given a special concession to play in the Super Sixes Competition. This ensured that these players are active in teams that performed admirably in the round robin stages of the competition.
"Teams at the IPT found themselves in the positions 7-12 on the preliminary pool competition. This competition provides the selectors with further opportunities to finalise four composite sides to participate in a Super 4’s Competition later this year.
"This competition is seen as the bridge between provincial and international participation. Good performances could unlock the door to the Women’s Cricket World Cup that takes place in Australia in March next year. There is much to play for as a lot is at stake for all of the participants," continued Jordaan.
Explaining the concept behind the recently completed Super Sixes tournament, Jordaan said: "The first six positions were placed in a round robin Super Sixes competition. This format facilitated a fairer passage for the best teams in annexing the premier national Women competition. It further presents an improved platform for national squad selection as the best players are engaged in the same section. Boland became the first winners of the inaugural Super Sixes competition."
Having contested the inaugural Super Sixes tournament, Boland, Northerns, Gauteng, Border, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State are not participating in this tournament.
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