Full-fledged Women’s IPL needs to wait for its own good

Often, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or such does Newton’s third law of motion states. And, indeed in a cricket-loving country like India, every minute action has an audaciously large reaction if not opposite. In this case, when India reached the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup, the stakes and the support grew multi-fold. Sometimes, it also felt like it had the capability of surpassing the support shown towards the men’s cricket team, minus all the undue criticisms. And, when Indian women lost the finals, it drew an unwanted parallel with the 2003 Cricket World Cup. 

So when all the hush-push about starting the Women’s IPL grew in degrees, it led to people shouting out for ‘equality,’ where it was undue. To put things into context, three teams that have dominated Women’s cricket since it started in 1973 are Australia, England and New Zealand. And, if we are indeed focusing on just T20 cricket, it all started in 2009 with England being the host. All three giants in women’s cricket do have their own T20 domestic tournaments but it is pertinent to see when they all began their dose of domestic tournaments. 

And, it does not boil down to just the monetary factor - but more importantly, the factor that we Indians easily forget about - setting up a talent pool. The bigger question here is, does the Indian team have the depth to go head to head against some of the top teams in the world? The answer is no, as we witnessed in the World Cup, we do not possess the talent pool required to go toe-to-toe with some of the major domestic leagues. Moreso, leagues like WBBL have a larger-than-life picture attached to it, purely because of its cricketing novelty. For the Women’s IPL to gain traction, it must have the cricketing novelty already on its top-level as the tournament is not the first of its kind. 

Also, it is true that the talent pool available for women’s cricket around the globe is a minuscule number compared to men’s cricket. But, it is purely because the sport and the league are still emerging, with the Harmanpreets and Mandhanas setting the benchmark. More importantly, the Indian women’s team have been playing their part in the various T20 leagues across the globe. To add to it, they have been largely successful during their stay, be it in Australia or England. But, more crucially, something that would let the Indian board down is there is only a handful who would be readily picked in the global leagues. That is indeed a major concern ahead of the well-ahead-of-time proposed WIPL.

There lies the issue and it is not just me who is asking for them to wait a while before they can go boom. And, moreso, the head coach of the women’s team, WV Raman admitted that full-fledged IPL for women is a long stretch. It is not coming from a common man’s mouth but rather a man who has seen IPL’s progress closely during his time in the league with Kolkata Knight Riders. For a man, who believes in systematic progress be it in terms of planning the team or trying to build it around youngsters, his opinion is highly valued and at this time, should be too, given that the Indian team reached the final in high-flying fashion under his tutelage. 

"My view is that as of now, we are not yet ready for a full-fledged IPL. What is a full-fledged IPL? If we're talking of an eight-team IPL, I don't think we are ready yet. Taking it nice and easy, a gradual thing, will be the best course of action. Yes, from two teams to three, and from three teams to four (in the Women's T20 Challenge) is happening,” he told Cricbuzz. 

“Instead of them playing once against each other, you can increase the quantum of matches, they can play each other twice. With the U-23 and 'A' tours happening for the girls as well, you will have a lot more talent coming through, which means in about three years' time, we should be ready for a proper IPL kind of tournament," Raman added. 

Another major aspect to keep a note of - what is the purpose of the tournament? Is it going to be seen as a commercially viable place to pull the profit-pad or is it going to be seen as a launchpad full of talent? In either of the two cases, the tournament must wait and it does not take too much time to understand that 1+1 does not equal four. That is how much ahead of time we are with the battle of starting a Women’s IPL.