Mithali Raj proposes an IPL like league for women

Having led India to the final of the Women’s World Cup, 2016 Mithali Raj expects an Indian Premier League (IPL) style league for women. She remarked that a T20 league like IPL would prove to be significant to the Indian women prospects.

Proposing the idea of a Women’s T20 league, Mithali stressed on the need of such tournaments for women. The veteran has been the flag bearer of Women’s cricket in the country and having been an icon in this form of the game has inspired a lot of young girls to take up the sport at professional level.

“Maybe we can come up with an IPL kind of tournament for women. Once these things fall into place then you can have a lot more players who can come in and have a league like that. Things are very bright for women’s cricket and the expectations are so high that the coming matches that we play against South Africa or Australia, people are going to scrutinize our performance and see how the team is doing but that is again a part of being a successful team,” the Indian skipper said.

Mithali admitted that she was surprised by the reception the team has received since their return from England which continued for the rest of the year. There has been a wave in favour of the women after they put up an inspiring performance in the tournament only falling short by an agonizing distance in the final.

Huge crowd at the airport

“Honestly, I did not expect this kind of a reception. We traveled in batches and the first batch did not give us any kind of heads up. When we reached the airport there was this huge crowd waiting for us and I had all these flashes on me and I just backed off thinking they have the wrong people. Half of the girls were traveling with me and were asking ‘Didi what will happen and how will we reach the bus?’ I said that we will manage somehow, it was a shock for us”, the 35-year-old was quoted as saying by India Today.

Earlier in the 2005 Women’s World Cup, Mithali was the one, who had led India to the final showdown. She expressed that things were different this time around and there was a drastic improvement in the team’s performance from the 2013 edition.