Across the globe, there has been constant chatter about Women’s IPL since men’s version of the tournament has made such an impact. BCCI has managed to have a tournament for women, but it consists only three. Former Indian captain Anjum Chopra is optimistic about larger tournament in the future. While talking to InsideSport, Anjum Chopra insisted that he is hopeful about bigger tournament.
“The whole idea behind holding the Women’s T20 Challengers trophy is like a prelude to the Women IPL. I am certainly optimistic.”
Chopra feels that even though the decision lies in the hand of the BCCI, she is optimistic about a Women’s Premier League, given the board’s current support of the T20 tournament for women. Even though there is no official word from the BCCI yet, there may be a three team tournament again this year.
The board was set to host a four team tournament last may in Jaipur but it had to be called off due to the pandemic. The tournament eventually took place in UAE with three teams in November 2020. The Women’s T-20 Challenge also bagged a new principal sponsor in Reliance Jio.
Talking about the IPL in general Chopra said that it’s hard to pick a favorite this early in the game as it’s difficult to predict. She is though, pleasantly surprised at the way some of the teams are performing so well with the players adapting and changing styles to suit conditions.
Chopra believes that majority of results have heavily relied on the nature of wicket. Elaborating upon it she explained that at present what can be seen is that two different nature of wickets dominate the tournament. While the Chennai wicket is difficult to score as compared to Mumbai wicket, So while some matches are having moderate scores in one venue, even a score of 200 seems to be chasable at the other venue.
She further lauded the BCCI for pulling off such a magnificent season in such difficult times. Speaking about the board’s announcement regarding the participation of the women in the 2022 CWG in Birmingham & 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Chopra believes that it is a big step in direction for women’s cricket in India.
Anjum added that as Women cricketers don’t get to play a lot of international matches like their men’s counterparts, So the team participating in CWG & Olympics are very encouraging. Although she cannot predict if india will be a favourite in 2022 CWG she is excited about the fact that it’s going to be very competitive because all the CWG countries play high level of cricket. She expects the same level of high & top notch competition in the tournaments.
BCCI should look to add more teams to Women’s T-20 Challenge next season
BCCI needs to start thinking about bigger tournament for women since Australia and England are way ahead at the international level. Both countries are benefitting from having strong franchise based tournaments like Big Bash and Vitality Blast. New Zealand also has Super Smash for women’s team. ECB is also going to have women’s teams in the Hundred later this year. The incredible amount of exposure players are getting in this tournaments is helping them to perform much better at the international level.