England Women’s star Lauren Bell is hailed as ‘the world’s most beautiful cricketer’ by hundreds of new Indian fans after signing up for their league
Thousands of delighted Indian fans have this week hailed England’s Lauren Bell as the ‘world’s most beautiful cricketer’ after she signed for WPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Bell, a 24-year-old six-foot-two seam bowler, was snapped up by the Indian side for a whopping £76,000 at Thursday’s auction alongside a host of her fellow countrywomen.
World No 1 bowler Sophie Ecclestone will join UP Warriorz, Danni Wyatt-Hodge has signed for Gujarat Giants and Nat Sciver-Brunt agreed a deal with defending champions Mumbai Indians.
But it’s Bell’s transfer which has left the native Indian fans most excited, as thousands flooded to the Englishwoman’s Instagram to welcome her to the league.
‘The most beautiful woman cricketer Lauren Bell will now play for the most beautiful franchise,’ one comment read.
‘We are very excited to see you playing for RCB team,’ read another.
Thousands of excited Indian fans have dubbed England seamer Lauren Bell ‘the world’s most beautiful cricketer’
Six-foot-two Bell was this week snapped up at an auction by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for £76,000
Bell was most recently a part of the England team which travelled to India for the Women’s Cricket World Cup last month.
The Three Lions exited the tournament at the semi-final stage when they suffered a thumping 125-run defeat to South Africa.
However speaking afterwards the country’s captain Natalie Sciver-Brunt praised her side’s efforts in the Indian sun.
‘We’ve come a long way since the summer,’ the all-rounder admitted. ‘We’re a different side from then and we’ve learnt a lot.
‘This will hurt but hopefully in time we’ll be able to take the learnings from it and move forward because we’ve made some great strides so far in quite a short uspace of time.
‘It’s really exciting where we can go. To the best of teams, you really have to be at your best and hopefully we’ll come back stronger.’
India eventually won the tournament after beating South Africa by 52 runs in front of some 45,000 fans in Mumbai.
It marked an incredible turnaround for the Indian Women, who lost three consecutive group stage games before emphatically turning their fortunes around.
