BCCI considers Mumbai's exhibition game as a start to a bigger picture for the Women’s IPL

The women's exhibition game that featured the Supernovas facing the Trailblazers turned out a mini success for BCCI, which had its nail-biting moments for the few people who spectated the game. The board had organized it as a pilot match before introducing Women’s Indian Premier League in the years to come. And despite the measly audience on Tuesday, BCCI hasn't given up on their vision and is deliberating a mini-IPL of sorts next year with 3-4 teams taking part in the competition.

Unlike the exhibition game, which was played at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium on the same day as the first IPL qualifier, the new strategy now would be to hold the women’s matches in smaller venues that might attract bigger crowds. This would one of the first steps taken by the board to and based on how the game fares in an IPL format in the next three years, the board will be deciding to introduce it officially on a large-scale in the years to come. Vinod Rai, the CoA chief also spoke on the possibility of commencing the tournament in three years’ time.

“It’s important to have continuity. The exhibition game was just a start. We agree to the fact that we could have planned it better which we will do from next season. There were various reasons for the stadium being near-empty but we are hopeful that slowly the popularity will increase. That is why we are now mulling a 3-4 team women’s league from next year in smaller centres. Smaller cities like Baroda, have seen a great turnout for women’s games generally,” a BCCI official informed.

The reason behind the delay faced by the women’s IPL was the lack of quality players to contest in such a tournament. So there would an added responsibility for the board to hand-pick a good pool of players who could feature in the shortest format at an IPL level.

The BCCI has opened applications for various posts including that of a bowling coach for the Indian women’s senior team. Apart from this, there has also been a requirement for coaches for the National Cricket Academy. Other posts like that of HR Manager, cricket operations manager will be open for applying at the NCA in Bangalore.

Presently, Tushar Arothe and Bijju George are respectively the coach and fielding coach of the women’s team. Meanwhile, the contracts of two coaches at the NCA, WV Raman, and Narendra Hirwani have come to an end. However, as they have been a part of the system for so long, they will not have to apply if they are willing to continue, as was the case of Anil Kumble.