BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has stated that there need to more active women crickets to organize a T20 League for women and that India is still at least four years away from organizing such a tournament.
“You need to understand the practicality of it,” Ganuly told India Today. “You need a lot more women players. I see that in four years’ time, to get a seven-team IPL with the best women players.”
The BCCI had earlier conducted an exhibition women’s T20 match – which featured several international stars – before Indian Premier League 2018.
The success of that trial prompted the Indian cricket board to introduce a Women’s T20 Challenge in 2019, which was a three-team event played in Jaipur.
The IPL Supernovas led by Harmanpreet Kaur beat Mithali Raj’s IPL Velocity in the final of that event.
What a moment this for the Supernovas who clinch the final game of #WIPL here in Jaipur 👌🙌 pic.twitter.com/XcUAkThHvL
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 11, 2019
Ganguly acknowledged that the popularity for women’s cricket is picking up in the country following India’s consistent performances in premier events, including reaching the finals in the previous World Cup.
However, he believes that state teams need to get stronger in order to set up a women’s IPL.
“You have to let the state association teams get stronger, a lot of them are getting stronger,” he said.
“The push for women’s cricket has been enormous over the last few years. Three years down the line, when you have 150-160 players, you can take the IPL forward. Right now, we have 50-60 players. With the push BCCI has for women’s cricket, that will only increase.”
