Women's T20 League | We may have full fledged league next year, says Mithali Raj

05/06/2019

Mithali Raj has stated that there may be a full fledged women’s T20 league next year, going by the progression from one match to a four match tournament this year. Three teams comprising of top women players from the world will face off against each other in the Women’s T20 Challenge starting today.

The inaugural women’s T20 challenge was just an exhibition match, played at 2 pm before the start of the first Qualifier of the Indian Premier League’s 2018 edition. However, this time it is a three team tournament which will be played during the prime time of 7.30 pm on non-IPL days at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Along with big Indian names like Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami among others, it will also feature big overseas names like England’s Danielle Wyatt and West Indies’ ODI captain Stephanie Taylor. In a bummer, the Australian trio of Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy will miss out after BCCI alleged that Cricket Australia have used them as a bait to fullfill their other demands. Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity are three teams that will face off in one match against each other with the top two qualifying for the final on May 11.

Indian ODI captain Mithali Raj, who will also captain Velocity, was hopeful that the tournament will get a good response which will enable it to grow bigger.

“We need to understand that to start something different, we had to start small. Last year we had just one game and this year they have added one more team and it’s a one-leg tournament. Maybe by next year or so, we might have a full-fledged league,” she said, reported PTI.

“Currently, it is like testing waters as we need to see how people reciprocate and how the teams do. So it’s also important for us to perform well so that we can grab eyeballs and attract more people to watch our matches. So that will probably encourage the BCCI or the franchises to come forward to start a proper league,” added the 36-year-old.

In today’s encounter, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana will be leading the Supernovas and the Trailblazers respectively.