Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has refused to give her two cents on the debate of short boundary in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023, saying that players are not the ones to decide if boundary limits should be increased from next season onwards.
On the instruction from the BCCI, the boundary size for the inaugural WPL season was reduced to a maximum 60 metres, which is five metres lesser than last month’s T20 World Cup.
The decision was to ensure more high-scoring games and entertainment for crowds. However, both the venues of the tournament – the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and the Brabourne Stadium –saw boundaries being brought in as close as 42-44 metres.
As a result, a number of batters made the most of the short boundary and scores of 200+ were notched up with ease.
“Ham logo ne thodi na rope lagaya hai. Jinhone rope lagaya hai aap unko poocho na. (We did not put the boundary ropes in place. You can ask whoever has done that),” Harmanpreet replied laughing during her joint media conference with Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning ahead of the WPL final on Sunday (March 26).
“It is not in our hands no? It is in the hands of the officials. You can talk to them,” she added.
Both the captains hoped that the Women’s Premier League is a start of something special in Indian cricket.
“WBBL has played a massive role in the development of cricket in Australia and around the world as well. It provides great opportunities to players and exposes everybody to pressure situations in big games, the need to perform when it really matters,” Lanning stated.
“It has played a big role in the success we have had as an Australian team and being part of the WPL here I think it is exactly the same thing.
“It has been so good to know some of the local Indian players and work alongside them to develop cricket in India and around the world,” she added.
Harmanpreet echoed Lanning’s viewpoint, while also adding that the country should be able to witness change in the next few years.
“WBBL played a big role in development of cricket in their country and WPL is also going to have a same role for our cricket. The domestic players are going to get a lot of opportunities, many girls have done well as we have seen.
“We will start seeing the results in 2-3 years. I am confident that Indian talent is also going to do well like Australia are doing,” she said.
(With PTI Inputs)
