• Friday, March 29, 2024

Sport

The curious case of Deandra Dottin, who was deemed unfit by Gujarat Giants in WPL 2023

Deandra Dottin plays a shot at the Women’s Big Bash League final at North Sydney Oval in Sydney, Australia, on November 26, 2022. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

Former West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin has expressed shock over her exclusion from the ongoing inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) in India saying while she was fit to represent Gujarat Giants in the tournament despite the franchise announcing her withdrawal on “medical” grounds.

According to a report by the BBC Sport, Dottin said she had been cleared to play from February 14 after suffering “minor abdominal pain”.

The 31-year-old, who is the first woman to slam a T20 century in 2010, said she was yet asked by the Giants to undergo a scan before the WPL took off on March 4. The procedure was not completed in time and as a result, Dottin was deemed unfit to play.

“I remain deeply disappointed by what can only, plausibly, be described as bewildering reasoning for my omission from the tournament,” Dottin later said in a statement on social media.

In the same, she said she was told with one day’s notice to submit her first scan by February 26.

She was later given a new date of March 1, but the Giants reportedly were unable to help her with booking the scan at a private hospital as a result of which she did not get the opportunity.

Dottin was bought by the Giants for approximately £60,000 in the WPL auction on February 13, but was later replaced by Australian Kim Garth.

According to the West Indian, she was treated for the abdominal pain in December last year and was told to rest until the middle of February by specialists, which was when she could resume training and playing, the BBC Sport report added.

“I experienced some soreness on the first day of my resumed training which was anticipated and reasonable,” Dottin said in the statement.

“I was transparent about this in correspondence with the Gujarat Giants physiotherapist, however this was misconstrued and later conveyed to members of the franchise’s management team as me ‘experiencing abdominal pain post-session’ which was not what I had indicated.”

On March 5, the Giants said in a statement that they were “unable to obtain medical clearance” for Dottin.

“To the best of my knowledge, other players had not been requested to partake in medical testing nor require medical clearance,” she said.

Related Stories

Loading