Flamboyant India opener Smriti Mandhana shares a full-fledged women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) can help to find the talent. Moreover, those talents could help the national team to do well in the international stage. The left-hander also lauded the efforts that the BCCI is putting in to make it a reality.
“The BCCI has put in a lot of effort, first we had an exhibition match kind of women’s IPL two years ago then there was a very successful IPL with three teams. And this year it was supposed to be four teams,” Mandhana expressed on the BBC podcast ‘The Doosra’. “I’m sure a lot of IPL style matches will take place for a year or two. A five or six-team IPL for women will be great for Indian women’s cricket specially for the World Cups.”
Indian Premier League has been playing the role of a bridge between the domestic and international cricket since 2008. However, Smriti Mandhana hopes this will become a reality in women’s cricket in the country soon.
Team India came in the limelight ever since their appearance in the 2017 ICC Cricket World Cup final. Although they lost the final, their hard work paid off. Since then, they have set a new bar with their performances and fitness. They have reached the final of 2020 T20 World Cup final too. Even, current coach WV Raman also shares that this team has the potential to become the best in three years.
Smriti Mandhana thinks the team has grown a lot
“Women’s cricket in Indian is growing massively, specially the domestic circuit. But there’s still a lot of gap between competition between international and domestic circuit which I think will be bridged in 2-3 years. We’ve grown a lot as a team specially after the 2017 WC. T20 format is not one of our strengths before but we have done reasonably well in the last two World Cups,” added Smriti Mandhana.
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“Not just this one in Australia, but the one we played in West Indies was a very good World Cup, unfortunately, we lost to England. What Raman sir said will happen. But I can’t say in how many years maybe next year or in 3-4 years or 5 years but I’m certain it will happen,” she further added.
Smriti Mandhana, who became the ICC woman’s cricketer of the year in 2019, recalled an incident with Virat Kohli. The incident inspired her too.
“I spoke to Virat in New Zealand last year. Both of us had got the ICC award he said ‘Your team can do something in India that the men’s team can’t. That is change the culture of women in India and that you all as the team have a big role to play in future. Whenever you feel like a gym session think that you can inspire a generation of women to take up sports,” said the swashbuckling opener.
