Women cricketers to have separate IPL in a couple of years: Sourav Ganguly

The Women’s T20 Challenge has enjoyed quite a bit of popularity amongst fans since its inception in 2018. The quality of cricket in the tournament has also increased with each passing year. Women’s cricket in India is booming and is scaling heights like never before. At such a time, it is almost impossible to ignore the possibility of a full-fledged IPL for women. Ever since the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), there has been a lot of support and demands for a franchise based Women’s IPL as well from players, experts and fans alike.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) started taking baby steps towards it after the success of Indian women at the 2017 World Cup where they finished runners up. They introduced Women’s T20 Challenge as a one off exhibition match in 2018 and over the past two years it has grown into a mini tournament with three teams fighting it out for the title.

Looks good, doesn't it? 😍#WomensT20Challenge pic.twitter.com/I556gL25e0

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) November 4, 2020

Three seasons down the line, the BCCI seems convinced that a full-fledged women’s IPL is now imperative. Former India captain and BCCI Chairman, Sourav Ganguly yesterday agreed to the fact that it’s about time that the BCCI starts a seven or eight franchise based team tournament for women. “At the present moment, there are only three teams in the women’s IPL and I believe that in a couple of years’ time we will be good enough to have a separate IPL with seven teams, eight teams like the franchise-based teams for the women as well,” Ganguly said.

He acknowledged that the popularity of women’s cricket among fans is on a rise across the globe and also credited the Indian women’s team for increasing the popularity of the game in India with their stellar performances in the last two ICC tournaments “Women’s cricket all around the world has taken off. You see the women’s T20 World Cup final in Australia this year. They had 80,000 people at the MCG which is as good as having a men’s final and India has done well where two back-to-back finals in England they lost and they lost at the MCG this year, so it’s very important that we continue with the talent, it’ll only get bigger,” he added.

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