BCCI ponder over women's exhibition T20s during IPL

The women cricketers deserve to play IPL, says CoA chief Vinod Rai.

Indian women's cricket team | PTI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is thinking about carrying out a few exhibition women T20 matches this year during the knock-out stage of the IPL. The board officials want to see how things pan out before they launch a similar cash-rich league for the women’s.  

As per the reports in TOI, Committee of Administrators (CoA) chairman Vinod Rai is quite keen to conduct a women's IPL and 2018 could prove to be the milestone year on this front.

"If we find that we can host a few exhibition matches then BCCI would like to do it this year. The women cricketers deserve to play IPL," Rai quoted as saying by TOI on Sunday.

In fact, during the IPL Governing Council meeting in October last year, the same matter was discussed.

"The members deliberated on the requirement for a women's event besides an event for the juniors. The members suggested that a plan can be drawn and presented at the subsequent meeting," TOI quoted the minutes of the IPL GC meeting.

Indian women’s team have been doing reasonably well lately. Having played the final of last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup in England, the Women in Blue recently scripted history by winning ‘double series’ against South Africa women.

While Mithali Raj led side beat the Proteas women 2-1 in a three-match ODI series, Harmanpreet Kaur led team thrashed the same side by 3-1 in a five-match T20I series.  

Seeing their rapid rise of late, former star of India's women's team and CoA member Diana Edulji feels the current crop of India women’s team deserve to play an IPL-alike tournament but planning is needed before the idea becomes reality.

"The IPL GC may discuss it for sure. If it's feasible we will do it. I am all for women's IPL. But it's too late this year to come up with a full-fledged event because of time constraint. We need a different window and, therefore, we can't rush into it. It needs a lot of planning," Diana said.

"I am happy with the way they played. This series has shown a new Indian team. The body language was good. Their fielding picked up and they were keen to win the series," she concluded.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 26 Feb, 2018

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