Cricket Australia (CA) has barred its woman cricketers to participate in the upcoming T20 Challenge which will be played during the final week of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019. The Aussie cricket board took this step in the wake of men's bilateral series dispute with the BCCI.

Three Australian players -- Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy --, who would have been big draws draw in the women's IPL. But according to media reports, an email from Cricket Australia's top official Belinda Clark indicates that stopping the three is a ‘pressure tactic’ to ensure postponement of men's ODI series.

As per the new Future Tours Program, Australia were supposed to play three ODIs in January 2020, which is during the peak Australian summer, owing to pressure from broadcasters.

“We will be in a position to consider the request when the current issue regarding the men's ODI series that was agreed in the FTP for late January 2020 is resolved by BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and CA CEO Kevin Roberts. I understand that this is being worked through at present,” Clarke wrote to the IPL operations team.

The BCCI has lambasted CA for putting conditions on the release of women players.

“If you look at the contents of Belinda's email, it is clear that they are resorting to blackmailing tactics. How is releasing women players related to men's series? It was agreed as per FTP and they want to backtrack now,” a senior official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

The BCCI's IPL operations team had written to the CA for the release of the three players on April 4 and Clark mailed on April 5.