Chamari Athapathtu will miss the final phase of the WPL for UP Warriorz (UPW) to join Sri Lanka on a white ball tour of New Zealand from March 4 in Napier. The game of Athapaththu will be the second big blow to UPW, which no longer has its full -time captain, Alyssa Healy due to injuries.
Espncricinfo has learned that from now on, Athapaththu will be available for UPW until February 26, which are four more games for them, before it tends to national tasks. After his game on February 26, against the Mumbai Indians in Bangalore, UPW will fly to Lucknow for the phase of the final league of the tournament where he will play three games at home. They have played only one game so far and left Athapathtu outside the XI in that clash they lost to the Gujarat giants.
Athapaththu was appointed captain of the 16 members of Sri Lanka launched by SLC on Monday and the team is scheduled to go to New Zealand on February 22 for three hate and so many T20I.
Allrounder Amelia Kerr is the only player in New Zealand in the WPL this season and she, unlike Athaphthu, will miss the bilateral series next month to play the entire WPL, including the knockouts if my describes for those who again. If my final arrives, scheduled for March 15, Kerr will also miss the first two T20 on March 14 and 16 in Christchurch. Last year too, Kerr had skipped the bilateral T20is at home against England to be available throughout the duration of the WPL.
In 2024, the calendar clash between the final stage of WPL and the T20i series in New Zealand had become a much greater problem when England captain Heather Knight (RCB) and Lauren Bell (UPW) had opted for WPL completely to represent your national team. Coincidentally, Athapaththu had replaced Bell for UPW then.
However, since then, boards such as the ECB have assured their players that they will not program international games during the WPL, which will move from the current February-March window to January-February 2026 onwards, according to the new tour program Women’s future (FTP). To avoid such clashes between international series and other T20 leagues, the hundred (August) and the WBBL (November) have also been given separated windows in the FTP that is executed until 2029.
With additional reports from Andrew Fidel Fernando
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