After the conclusion of the inaugural session of The Hundreds, we have seen women cricketers showing their eagerness for a full-fledged edition of Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) which is considered as one of the most celebrated cricketing festivals among men’s crickets.
It isn’t just Indians but players across the countries have pointed out the need to have a league for the shortest format of the sport. The demand was first raised by Indian batter Jemimah Rodrigues seems to be very much keen on having IPL for women because, in her opinion, a league like IPL would provide the youngsters a platform to share fields with senior players especially international players, and learn from the best. Also, it would help the experienced players to improve their performance further. Rodrigues’ demand has got support not just from her teammates but also those from other countries as well.
Supporting the demand, the India Women team’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur put forward her views on the same after India lost the second of the three T20Is against Australia in what is called to be another close match of the multi-format series between the two teams. Being put to bat first, India wasn’t able to post a good total with just Harmanpreet, Deepti Sharma, and Pooja Vastrakar getting into the double digits. Vastrakar was the savior for India for at least taking the score to triple digits which seemed almost out of reach when the women in blue were 9 wickets down for 81. Vastrakar’s contribution helped India finish at 118 in their 20 overs. Later, though, the bowlers tried their level best to defend the total by taking early wickets, which also saw an unbelievable ball being bowled by Shikha Pandey in the first over itself, Tahlia McGrath’s unbeaten 42 created pressure for them which ultimately took the game away. Harmanpreet pointed out the fact that since the Aussies have been playing matches all season especially the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) they have the confidence and strength to deal in pressure situations.
However, as per a report by Times of India, former Indian pacer Nooshin Al Khadeer has emphasized the need for multi-day competitions in domestic cricket, she said, “A WIPL will only help you get better in the T20 format. It won’t serve the purpose of helping us find quality players in the ODI and Test formats. Look at Australia’s example in the pink-ball Test. Their captain Meg Lanning had so many all-rounders in her team, but no specialists, which you need to win Tests.”
Looking at the demand for Women IPL not just from the players but fans across social media, BCCI should definitely give a thought to it and come forward with their decision.
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