Women’s IPL comprising 7 or 8 teams is four years away: Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly is thoroughly enjoying himself ever since taking charge as BCCI President. He is bringing instant development in Indian cricket-related activities and based on the prima facie, one can come to a firm conclusion that the future of Indian cricket is in safe hands. Besides doing as many wonders in men’s cricket, Sourav Ganguly is pretty much focussed on developing women’s cricket too.

It is cognizance of the fact that the formal discussions surrounding women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) drew attention across the cricketing globe in the last couple of years. Following India’s progress to the final of the 2017 World Cup, there were calls from every nook and corner to start a T20 league for the women cricketers on the line of lucrative Indian Premier League. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have now decided to stage some matches during the IPL in a bid to experiment how things pan out.

It is to be noted that in the year 2018, there was a lone women’s T20 exhibition match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Unfortunately, it did not woo too many fans. In what turned out to be a less engaging contest, only 200 spectators turned up to watch the game held in the afternoon before the first qualifier.

However, BCCI did analyze the problem and turned the Women’s T20 Challenge into a three-team event in Jaipur in 2019 which attracted many supporters. The games occur at the same time with the playoffs of the Indian Premier League.

Sourav Ganguly opens up on the possibility of Women’s IPL

Talking about the women’s IPL, Sourav Ganguly conceded that it would take time even as the cricketing fraternity is waiting for the start of mega league for women’s cricketers in India. Ganguly stated that the women’s tournament comprising seven or eight teams is at least “four years away”.

“You need to understand the practicality of it. 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],” Ganguly added.

Before thinking about executing future plans now, BCCI has now started working on giving prime importance to women’s cricket by introducing the four-team event, with each side playing the other two times. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly believes steps like these will promote women’s cricket to a whole new level. At the same time, he also wants the state associations to do much more to widen their talent pool.

“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,” Ganguly signed off.

It is also worth mentioning here that Sourav Ganguly invited Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to play historic pink-ball affair against India. It turned out to be a massive success as fans turned up in numbers to cheer for their respective teams.

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