The inaugural women's Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to be held in March 2023, prior to the men's tournament.
Up till now, a small exhibition tournament featuring three teams has only been organized for the women. However, the female cricketers will also have a separate tournament from next year onward.
Leading Indian cricketers like Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana are eagerly waiting for the event that will also see participation from overseas stars.
Harmanpreet and Mandhana also believe that the women’s IPL could help newcomers in making a seamless transition from domestic to international cricket.
“The IPL will be a great platform for players that are really good, but you know for them, international cricket is still something that they cannot change their approach and mind-set overnight,” Harmanpreet said while speaking on Star Sports show ‘Follow the Blues’.
“But in the IPL, when they get a chance to play against overseas players, it will give them a platform, they can play well, they can understand what is international cricket.
“So, when they are playing for the Indian team, they will not face any extra pressure, because right now, the players that are selected from the domestic teams, sometimes I can see that they are blank, they are not able to understand how to change their game plan.
“To cut that gap, the tournament will play a major role. So, in the coming years, with the girls who play in the IPL, we will definitely see some major changes in their performances.”
The Women in Blue have made significant strides in the last few years but they have failed to clinch an ICC title despite numerous knockout appearances. Under Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy, the team recently won the Asia Cup for a record seventh time.
Commenting further on IPL, Harmanpreet said: “The IPL is a huge step forward for women’s cricket, because before this, we have witnessed the Australia board, England board, they have looked after the WBBL and The Hundred.
“We have discussed that there’s a big gap between domestic and international cricket, because even if you play well in domestic cricket and then suddenly play international games, you’re not able to understand what to do and how to do it.”
Mandhana expects the women’s IPL to help the Indian domestic players in a similar way that The Hundred and the WBBL have done to England and Australian cricketers, respectively.
“All of women’s cricket, I won’t say the Indian team or the domestic set-up. We keep talking about how it will increase the bench strength.
“But actually, the fact is that it’s going to help the domestic girls massively because that sort of experience in playing in leagues like this will get a lot of things sorted for women’s cricket,” Mandhana said.
“Grassroot wise and we have seen how the Big Bash and The Hundred have helped Australia and England respectively in their domestic set-up as well as other things.
“So, I’m actually really happy, the Indian team will benefit a lot from the women’s IPL, but it’s also going to benefit a lot of domestic girls which I’m looking forward to.”
(Star Sports inputs)
