BCCI should start Women’s IPL by next year, opines Mithali Raj

After Sunil Gavaskar made it a point and voiced his opinion that the Women’s IPL should be organized in the near furture, Mithali Raj has spoken along the same lines. The seasoned batsman opined that the BCCI should not "wait forever" to organise the Women's IPL, and has suggested that the inaugural season be next year. Additionally, she admitted that it is only possible on a smaller scale and suggested some changes in rules.

"I personally feel they should start a women's IPL by next year, even if it's on a slightly smaller scale and with some changes in rules, such as, say, have five to six foreign players in the first edition instead of four as is the case with the men's IPL," Raj told ESPNcricinfo in an extensive chat.

The BCCI has done it’s by organizing a four-team contest in this year's Women's T20 Challenge with seven matches compared to last year's four. However, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said that a full-fledged Women's IPL could take at least "four years away", after he took office in October 2019.

Even though Raj agreed with Ganguly’s argument, she believes that the tournament can’t “wait forever”.

"I agree we don't have the depth in the domestic pool yet, but the key is to get the existing franchises to form teams, even if five or six of them are keen to begin the process because in any case, the BCCI was going to have four teams [in the Women's T20 Challenge],” added Raj.

"You cannot wait forever; you have to begin at some point, and gradually, year by year, you can keep evolving the league and then bring it down to four foreign players."