The possibilities of the women’s IPL are enormous, believes W.V Raman, former coach of the Indian women’s team.
“There are two ways of looking at it: you say it could inspire a lot of girls to take up cricket or you say take it nice and easy and once you start a full-fledged (women’s) IPL you want it to be a grand success straight away,” he said. “I suppose it will also boil down to the commercial side of things too, because IPL is not just all about cricket.”
Even after the multi-format series concluded last October, eight members of the Indian women’s team that went on a tour of Australia stayed back. Women’s Big Bash League has signed them up.
A player equalled the record for the league’s highest individual score whereas one of the players became the Player of the Tournament. Shafali Varma, Radha Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav also did their bit for their franchises.
“If the objective of the IPL is to give exposure to the girls, you would think of providing good quality or if you think of commerce, the commercial angles will depend more on the quality of cricket that is played,” said the former India opener.
“At the end of the day, you have to put out a package even if it is slow to take off, it will sustain itself and become a big brand later on.”
“They can start it in 2022 (with five teams),” Raman said. “In another two years, the under-19 girls would have played two World Cups. After the first IPL, a lot of young girls would be encouraged by their parents to take up cricket. So by 2024, you will have enough cricketers in terms of numbers and talent.”
