Sophie Molineux is on track for the T20 World Cup: CA
Sophie Molineux’s injury during India’s tour of Australia limited her participation in the subsequent tour of the West Indies as a batter. However, Cricket Australia’s Head of Performance (women’s cricket) clearly said, “We’re certainly not looking at her as a batting captain. She’ll be playing as a bowling allrounder to be available.”
Flegler spoke about how they dealt with Molineux’s injury during the West Indies tour. “The stress reaction in the back during the Indian series, not ideal, but things do happen. We just made decisions around that and we decided we could either push through with it, take a big risk and see if she got through, or we just pull back a little bit.”
Molineux was made captain of Australia women keeping in mind the T20 World Cup 2026 and the following year’s Champions Trophy. Flegler mentioned, “She’s on track for the T20 World Cup and that’s what the goal was at the start.” He further added, “We’ll be judged on that as time goes on, but we think it was the right decision at the time. I think she’s done really well in the games that she has captained and the way she’s been around the group so far. I guess we’ll see how that ends up in the T20 World Cup and how it goes in the future as well.”
CA hands over central contracts to 18 women
Cricket Australia announced the 18-member contracts list (women) for the 2026-27 with three changes from the previous list. Chloe Ainsworth and Lucy Hamilton received their maiden central contracts. Tayla Vlaeminck and Tess Flintoff were not handed a renewal and former captain Alyssa Healy who recently retired from international cricket was not named in the list.
“It’s exciting to see Lucy Hamilton and Chloe Ainsworth earn their first national contracts, which is a testament to the impact and talent they’ve showed at domestic level, while Nicola Carey retains her recent upgrade after some strong performances over the last two series,” Cricket Australia’s Head of Performance (Women’s Cricket) and National Selector, Shawn Flegler said. “While Tayla and Tess aren’t on the list this year, we’ll continue to support their development and they are both very much still in contention for selection.”
Contracts list: Chloe Ainsworth, Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Lucy Hamilton, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
IPL 2026: BCCI restricts movement of benched players during matches
The BCCI curbed the movement of benched players during the matches in the Indian Premier League. Extra players, who are not named in the 16 players in the team sheet (playing XI + impact player options), are not allowed to enter the playing field.
“Instructions have been passed to us only recently that all substitutes cannot move around during the match. They are also not allowed to carry drinks onto the field. Only the 16 named in the team for the match can do so. In addition to that, only five outside the playing XI can move around. The others can sit in the dugout, but cannot move between the boundary line and LED advertising boards,” multiple team sources said, as reported by Cricbuzz
The updates come to Clause 11.5.2 and Clause 24.1.4 of the MPC. “Squad members of the fielding or batting team who are not playing in the match and who are not acting as substitute fielders shall be required to wear a team training bib whilst on the playing area (including the area between the boundary and the perimeter fencing),” Clause 24.1.4 says.
