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

"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.

"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.