I Personally Feel They Should Start A Women’s IPL By Next Year- Mithali Raj:
BCCI shouldn’t “wait forever” to launch the women’s IPL, said India’s female ODI captain Mithali Raj, encouraging the board next year to do it on a smaller scale before slowly expanding.
“I personally believe they will launch an IPL for women by next year, even if it’s on a smaller scale and with some rules changes, like having five or six foreign players in the first edition instead of four, as is the case with the IPL for men,” said Raj after India lost the T20 World Cup in the finals earlier this month, former skipper Sunil Gavaskar also called for the full IPL.
A women’s three-team tournament was played in 2019 featuring sides called IPL Velocity, IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas.
The BCCI had planned this year to organize a four-team women’s T20 challenge to run parallel to the men’s IPL playoffs, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now been put on hold along with the main event.
You Cannot Wait Forever:
India doesn’t have enough female cricketers to have a full IPL, but Raj said that if current IPL franchises start the cycle with their own teams, that can still be achieved.
“I agree that we don’t have the depth in the domestic pool yet, but the goal is to get established franchises to shape teams, even if (only) five or six of them are keen to start the process, then the BCCI will have four teams in any case,” she said.
“You can’t wait forever; you have to start at some point, and slowly, year after year, you can keep the league growing and then get it down to four international players.”Raj also said teen sensation Shafali Verma, who impressed with the bat in the T20 World Cup, should also be included in the ODIs.
“To be considering her for the ODIs is not a bad thing. She’s young but that shouldn’t be a reason for not giving her ODI-side opportunities, “she said.
