With Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 just around the corner, a lot of cricket pundits want to have a full-fledged women’s IPL. But the BCCI chief and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly on the other hand feels that such a tournament - involving seven or eight teams is at least "four years away".

While talking to India Today about the full-fledged women’s IPL, Ganguly said, “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).”

The Women’s IPL which began as an exhibition match in 2018 turned into a three-team event in 2019. The three teams were led by star Indian cricketers Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana with all the matches of 2019 edition held at Jaipur.

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This increased the popularity of women’s games in India which resulted in record crowds turning up in Surat when India hosted South Africa. This in turn has got the BCCI to think about hosting next year's Women's T20 challenge there before taking it to other cities as well.

When asked about these steps helping women’s cricket, the 47-year-old said, “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,” he added.

(With India Today inputs)