Indian women cricketers express wish for Women's Indian Premier League

I think it is now time that we need to have a women's IPL in India. Because if you see the standards of England and Australian girls, it's not that we don't have that much skill. It is just that the amount of exposure they are getting and these kinds of games, it helps them improve so much drastically, says Jemimah Rodrigues.

Mackay:Indian women cricketers Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Radha Yadav and Smriti Mandhana have expressed their wish for a Women's Indian Premier League to begin. As of now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had organised a three-team women's T20 Challenge in the past.

In a video posted by cricket.com.au, Jemimah, Harmanpreet, Radha and Smriti, currently participating in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) have given their views on a full-fledged women's IPL.

"I think it is now time that we need to have a women's IPL in India. Because if you see the standards of England and Australian girls, it's not that we don't have that much skill. It is just that the amount of exposure they are getting and these kinds of games, it helps them improve so much drastically," said Jemimah, currently playing for Melbourne Renegades.

"All these things are so new for us. Just imagine if a youngster goes into the women's IPL, does well and gets selected for India and then she'd be like, 'ok, I've been in a familiar place'. You never know you might get so much, so many better talents out of that like Shafali Verma. I think it's high time, it'll just make women's cricket better in India," added the youngster.

Harmanpreet, the India T20I captain and Jemimah's team-mate in the Melbourne side, agreed with her views. "We have seen how Australian cricket has grown when the WBBL started, and I hope we will also get a platform like that."

Smriti, currently plying her trade for Sydney Thunder, firmly believes that organising women's IPL will help in forming a bench strength for the Indian team. "That's the next step for Indian women's cricket, I think. Having an eight-team IPL or whatever teams BCCI decides, I think that's going to add a lot of depth to women's cricket in India."

"You can see the standard of Australian women's team going up and not only by their main players, even the bench. That's what these kind of leagues do, like, strengthen our bench. So that's something which are much needed in Indian cricket."

Radha, associated with Sydney Sixes, too had the same opinion. "Absolutely. We have really good talent in India. It would be nice if we get a full IPL. For the other girls also in India, it will be really good."

IANS