Athapaththu to leave WPL early to play for Sri Lanka

Wednesday, 19 February 2025 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Chamari Athapaththu

ESPNCricinfo: Chamari Athapaththu is set to miss the final phase of the WPL for UP Warriorz (UPW) to join Sri Lanka on a white-ball tour of New Zealand starting 4 March in Napier. Athapaththu’s departure will be the second big blow for UPW who are already without their full-time Captain Alyssa Healy because of injury.

ESPNcricinfo has learnt that as of now, Athapaththu is going to be available for UPW until 26 February, which is four more games for them, before she tends to national duties. After their game on 26 February, against Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru, UPW will fly to Lucknow for the final league phase of the tournament where they will play three home matches. They have played just one game so far and they left Athapaththu out of the XI in that clash they lost to Gujarat Giants.

Athapaththu was named Captain of Sri Lanka’s 16-member side released by SLC on Monday and the squad is scheduled to leave for New Zealand on 22 February for three ODIs and as many T20Is.

All-rounder Amelia Kerr is the only New Zealand player in the WPL this season and she, unlike Athapaththu, is going to miss the bilateral series next month to play the entire WPL, including the knockouts if MI qualify for those again. If MI make it to the final, scheduled for 15 March, Kerr will also miss the first two T20is slotted for 14 and 16 March in Christchurch. Last year too, Kerr had skipped the home bilateral T20Is against England to be available for the entire duration of the WPL.

In 2024, the calendar clash between the final leg of WPL and the T20I series in New Zealand had become a much bigger issue when England Captain Heather Knight (RCB) and Lauren Bell (UPW) had opted out of WPL completely to represent their national team. Coincidentally, Athapaththu had replaced Bell for UPW then.

However, since then boards like the ECB have assured their players they won’t schedule international games during the WPL, which is set to move from the current February-March window to January-February 2026 onwards, according to the new women’s Future Tours Program (FTP). To avoid such clashes between international series and other T20 leagues, the Hundred (August) and the WBBL (November) have also been given separate windows in the FTP that runs till 2029.

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