BCCI is all in the news, in India and globally, for its handling of the IPL and the organization of the biggest T20 league amidst a pandemic. Things are not, however, very clear here. India’s ace commentator and first icons of female cricket namely Anjum Chopra seem to have realized the same. In an interaction with PTI, she said that though BCCI has a plan for women’s cricket, it needs to be specific in communicating the ideas.
She told PTI that “It’s not that the BCCI is not thinking about women’s cricket. I only think they need to be more specific in communication about women’s cricket”. She added that “I firmly believe that they must be thinking about women’s cricket but the communication all this while has been very specific to men’s cricket”. As reported by us, there was a great degree of criticism for BCCI when it decided to withdraw the participation of women’s team from a tri-series scheduled in England.
The reason, as given by the board, was pandemic but IPL was getting into a reality at the same time. Chopra regarded the withdrawal as something “not nice”. Nevertheless, the announcement regarding women’s IPL is, according to her, going to be helpful for the team’s preparation for the world cup 2021.
Chopra said “It is heartening to see women’s cricket making headlines. They should have been a part of that England tour and it did not feel nice initially but the women’s IPL, irrespective of the format, will be helpful for World Cup preparations.
Any form of cricket is good preparation”. She added that “Missing out on a tournament is not nice, but logistically there may have been issues. And you can’t send an under-prepared team”. Further, she told the media agency that “If you see in isolation we may have missed out on an opportunity to play in England. The more the girls play the better it is, before playing a tournament of the stature of the World Cup. The assurance from the president is a very good thing”.
On the preparations, she noted that “They should have been nearing the final stages of the preparation for the World Cup by now, but because of the pandemic things did not go as planned”.
The pandemic, she realized, had forced a pause button on the game and the world but as the resumption becomes common a new normal and shades of normalcy might start taking shape.
A student who enjoys studying cricket more than anything else, keen to learn the insights of the women’s game.
