India Women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj has recently shared her opinion on the possible impact of the ongoing Coronavirus break on the Women’s cricket, saying the COVID-19 pandemic may have damaged the growth of women’s cricket and set the game back by a couple of years.
The legendary India women cricketers also said the momentum created by India’s success at the ODI World Cup in 2017 and the T20 World Cup earlier this year has been lost due to the pandemic.
While the Men’s international cricket has resumed in England on Wednesday (July 8) with the hosts taking on West Indies in a three-match Test series after a three-month Coronavirus-forced break, the Women’s cricket might take some time to return in action.
There has been no female cricket since the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia where the hosts defeated the India Women to clinch the record fifth coveted trophy in March with final of the showpiece event set a major landmark as 1.1 billion people globally viewed the final while 86000 arrived at the MCG.
Speaking at the 'Re-Setting the Sports Ecosystem: Opportunities in The New Normal World' at FICCI FRAMES, Mithali said: “Unfortunately, women's cricket may have been set back by a couple of years by this pandemic as some of the momentum that had been built between India's success in World Cup 2017 and World T20 2020 has been lost.”
The 37-year-old further revealed that she had had talks with the BCCI officials regarding a dedicated calendar for the India women's team while she hopes that the game will return to live soon.
However, the world's highest run-getter in ODI made it clear that a full-fledged Women's IPL still needs at least three years to go on the floor.
The Women’s cricket icon further noted, “However, we have had discussions with BCCI to draw up a firm calendar for the Indian women's team so that fans can regularly cheer for the team.”
Raj signed off by saying, “The plans have obviously been disrupted but we believe we can re-build quickly. I think a full-fledged Women's IPL is still 2-3 years away but we would certainly look to have a fourth team in the Women's Challenge that is played concurrently with the IPL.”
(With PTI Inputs)
