Mithali Raj, India Women’s ODI captain, has joined Sunil Gavaskar in urging the BCCI to act soon on a women’s IPL.
Gavaskar had said that the tournament was the right way to go, at the conclusion of the T20 World Cup final, which India lost to Australia, arguing that it would help unearth more talent that would eventually help India win more global titles.
Raj is of the opinion that the tournament should begin as early as in the next year, even if only on a small scale as compared to the men’s event. “I personally feel they should start a women’s IPL by next year, even if it’s on a slightly smaller scale and with some changes in rules, such as, say, have five to six foreign players in the first edition, instead of four, as is the case with the men’s IPL,” Raj told ESPNcricinfo.
Ganguly’s reasoning was that India’s talent pool wasn’t deep enough to afford a full-fledged tournament, but Raj argued there was no reason to wait any longer, with four teams having already been formed for the T20 Challenge.
“I agree we don’t have the depth in the domestic pool yet,” she said, “but the key is to get the existing franchises to form teams, even if [only] five or six of them are keen to begin the process, because in any case, the BCCI was going to have four teams [in the Women’s T20 Challenge].”
