Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana named in ICC Womens Team of the Year

India batswoman Smriti Mandhana was on 14 December 2016 named in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's Team of the Year 2016.

With this inclusion, she became the first Indian woman cricketer to figure in the prestigious list.

About Women's Team of the Year 2016

• The team will be captained by Stafanie Taylor of West Indies.

• Besides the captain and Smriti, the team features three players from New Zealand, two players each from Australia, England and South Africa.

• Other members of the team are - Suzie Bates, Rachel Priest and Leigh Kasperek (New Zealand), Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry (Australia), Heather Knight and Anya Shrubshole (England) and Deandra Dottin and Sune Luus (South Africa).

• Rachel Priest of New Zealand is the wicket-keeper of the team.

• Kim Garth of Ireland was included in the list as the 12th player.

• The 12-member team was selected based on their performance between 14 September 2015 and 20 September 2016.

• In the selection process, more weightage was given to players’ performance in ICC Women's World Twenty20 and the ICC Women's Championship which were conducted in this period.

• The list was prepared by a panel consisting of Clare Connor (Chair), Mel Jones and Shubhangi Kulkarni.

• The list was announced by ICC chief executive David Richardson at the ICC headquarters in Dubai.

About ICC Women's Team of the Year

• Though the ICC has been announcing the Men’s Team of the Year for a while, this is for the first time the ICC announced the Women’s Team of the Year.

• The ICC started the practise of announcing the team considering the growing quality and depth of the women's game.

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