A few days after Smriti Mandhana stated the need for a six-team Women’s IPL, Jemimah Rodrigues also shared similar opinions. Jemimah believes that the standard of women’s cricket will increase only if the IPL takes place. Until now, the BCCI has held three editions of the Women’s T20 Challenge with three participating teams- Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity. However, this year it is likely that the tournament will not take place.
The BCCI sent several star cricketers to feature in foreign leagues. Jemimah, Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Deepti Sharma were part of the Indian contingent for the inaugural edition of The Hundred and showed a good performance at the tournament.
Rodrigues was part of the Northern Superchargers squad and was the leading run-getter scoring 249 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 150.90. She too believes that with the depth that cricket has reached in the country, it is the best time for the BCCI to start the Women’s IPL.
After Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues has also reiterated the importance of having Women’s IPL. #TheHundred #WomensIPL @JemiRodrigues pic.twitter.com/X3sjKpINtX
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 21, 2021
Rodrigues told BBC, “Once they realise that OK, this is the standard, this is what I need to go out and do, they will want to work harder and work better. That’s very important in India because there is a lot of gap between the domestic and international side in India. In every street in India, you see boys and girls playing cricket – there isn’t any shortage of future players! I think it’s high time we had an IPL.”
Jemimah also stated that the Indian cricketers were desperately waiting for the Women’s IPL after experiencing the WBBL, The Hundred, KSL that took place in different countries. She feels that the IPL would benefit the domestic cricketers a lot after sharing the dressing room with some of the top players across the world.
“When we see the WBBL happening, then the KSL and now the Hundred, we are all like, when will we have our own IPL? It is going to make women’s cricket better. Imagine, the domestic girls here in England, the kind of experience they are having, sharing dressing rooms with international players. There is so much to learn.”
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