Sourav Ganguly Comments on Women’s IPL

As the Women’s T20 World Cup near the corner and India are all set to try their level best to win their maiden title, many think a full-fledged women’s IPL should be played including the players of India and overseas. That will help the players to grow. However, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly thinks this kind of a tournament is far away which involves seven or eight teams.

“You need to understand the practicality of it,” he 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 [in participation].”

BCCI took the initiative in 2018 where an exhibition game was played in Mumbai. That initiative turned the Women’s T20 Challenge into a three-team tournament in Jaipur in 2019. Moreover, senior players and coaches gave the tournament a thumbs-up. Encouraged by the response, BCCI thought to convert it into a four-team event, with each side playing the other twice as well.

This is somehow related to a direct consequence of increased popularity in the women’s game since India’s dream run to the final of the 2017 World Cup. BCCI has re-introduced the A tours for women also. An India A team will tour to Australia to play three T20 and as many One Day games before the senior team’s tri-series in January.

However, according to Sourav Ganguly, these steps will help increase the push for women’s cricket and he also wants the state associations to focus on to widen their talent pool as well.

“You have to let the state association teams get stronger, a lot of them are getting stronger. 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,” Sourav Ganguly concluded.