'IPL Will Enhance Women's Game With More Competitive Cricket'

The BCCI has reportedly set aside a window to conduct inaugural women’s IPL in March next year and preparations to make it a reality are already underway. This came months after BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had announced that the cricket board intends to conduct women’s IPL next year.

Former India women’s team captain Anjum Chopra reckons that the tournament will improve the quality of competition in women’s cricket.

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“The women’s IPL is finally happening," Chopra wrote in her column for the news agency IANS.  “March 2023 will see the women take centre stage prior to the already established world-class product that is the men’s Indian Premier League. While it will enhance the women’s game with more competitive cricket, it will be in complete contrast to the men’s game, which has had an overload of game time."

Chopra reckons that in the initial few seasons, there could be a trend of foreigners taking the lead in the coaching setup, template that IPL has followed over the years.

“BCCI has a very structured coaching programme. With the women’s IPL approaching, there might be a similarity initially in leaning back on home coaching talent playing second fiddle to foreign coaches, but there is no surety. It will become crucial for Indian women coaches to put their hands up and be counted in," she wrote.

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She also said that while high scoring-rate and huge totals haven’t become a regular feature in women’s T20 as of now, it won’t take much time.

“The men’s game has hit overdrive but the women’s game is in the progression stage. It might not take a very long time to pick up speed but yes, any compromise in the basics of the game might pose a challenge. You cannot always hit the ball out of the park to score runs; sometimes grafting for ones and twos also keeps the scoreboard moving," she wrote.

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