India aims to launch a women’s edition of the Indian Premier League in the next three years, according to Vinod Rai, the chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators overseeing BCCI functioning.
As part of the build-up, top international women players will take part in a Twenty20 exhibition game at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium later this month.
“We are planning to get a women’s IPL in place in two to three years,” Rai told AFP.
No firm details of the new league have yet been revealed, but pressure for a women’s IPL has been building since India reached the final of the women’s World Cup in England last year.
Women cricketers from Australia, England and South Africa will play an Indian team under IPL rules in the May 22 game in Mumbai.
“The match to be played between a BCCI XI and IPL XI will take place ahead of the first (men’s IPL) playoff at the Wankhede Stadium,” Rai, said.
The Mithali Raj-led India lost to England in the World Cup final last year, and received a rapturous welcome on their return.
The ratings success of the World Cup prompted the International Cricket Council to promise a greater role for women’s cricket.
Speaking ahead of the T20I tri-series featuring England and Australia that took place in India, Mithali Raj had said an IPL-like event for women will make sense only when the BCCI has in place for them a “strong domestic” setup.
“It’s important to have the pool of players, who will be qualified to play IPL kind of a league. As I mentioned (in) India A (team) itself we need quality players. Once we have those many players then it will be wise enough to have an IPL,” the skipper of India’s women’s ODI team had said then.
(With AFP inputs)
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