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Women's IPL: Need Of The Hour

BCCI announced in April that they were working on launching a Women's IPLin 2023. It can be counted as a huge boost for the Indian women's cricket scene. In a press conference, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly stated that the BCCI is attempting to field five to six teams for the inaugural season of women's IPL in 2023. Cricket fans around India and also around the globe want a WIPL and they have been asking for it for a long time. But why?

Till now, we in India have had, I must not say weak but also not that strong a domestic cricket sphere for women's cricket. Women's T20 Challenge is held every year in the latter parts of the men's IPL and that is the only thing we have as a counter part of the men's IPL. Top women's cricketers from around the world take part in it and some of the domestic talent too. But the problem with the tournament is that it only consists of three teams, and only four matches are played, including a final match, and all three teams play against each other. Another problem is that the tournament starts and finishes in a span of only 3 or 4 days. Sometimes one team has to play one match on Saturday evening and the other on Sunday afternoon. That is MAD and STUPID on behalf of BCCI.

The other domestic trophy tournament we have is the Senior Women's T20  and ODI
Trophy, which is not that bad. All the local state players get a chance to play at the national level with the current international squad players. So there is nothing wrong with that tournament in my opinion. 

The need for the WIPL rises for the lack of match time for our women's team. We witnessed it in the World Cup 2022 in New Zealand when our team went to the tournament with a lack of match time. That affects a lot of the players. Another basic requirement of the WIPL is exposure to domestic players. Consider how our cricketing scene has changed since the inaugural IPL in 2008, and how we have evolved. We have the strongest academy and domestic culture for men's cricket. And we expect that too for women's cricket after the start of the WIPL. And also include all the other miscellaneous reasons why we need a WIPL, like, employment, financial stability, and opportunity for all the talented women cricketers and many other factors too. 


England and Australia also host a huge women's T20 franchise tournament, The Hundred, and the Women's Big Bash League, respectively. All the top Indian women cricketers go there to play and participate, and I can ensure you that only a massive first season of WIPL can surpass the hype of the other Women's cricket tournaments.


Sophie Devine, New Zealand Women's Cricket Team Captain, in one of her interviews said, "When the women’s IPL happens, I’ll be scared of what’s coming from India." So, I don't know what BCCI is waiting for. I know they couldn't start with WIPL in the last two years because of COVID as there was no way to collect revenue from the audiences filling the stadium, but as COVID eases off, hopefully, BCCI should not wait a second to kickstart WOMEN'S INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE.




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