Indian women cricketers are the biggest untapped talent market, insists Lisa Sthalekar
Lisa Sthalekar has insisted that the lack of matches for the Indian women’s team next is a massive cause of concern and they are the biggest untapped talent market. She added that BCCI is moving in the right direction but they are slow in planning women’s IPL and providing enough match practice.
While BCCI has somehow arranged for the resumption of the international for Indian men cricketers, their women counterparts have struggled to find matches in the prevailing situations. Except for the Women’s T20 Challenge during the IPL, women cricketers have not played a single match since they finished runners-up to Australia at the T20 World Cup this year. And surprisingly, nothing is planned for them in the near future as well.
Former Australian captain Lisa Sthalekar, now a well-known commentator, insisted that the lack of matches for Indian women cricketers is a cause of concern as they are the biggest untapped talent for the BCCI.
"I know the pandemic and what the situation is in India. But the fact that Indian contracted players don't know when they are playing next is a massive concern. They are going to fall behind. I feel they are the biggest untapped talent market. If they get it right, then Indian women's cricket will dominate," Sthalekar said as quoted by TOI.
The lack of practice for Indian women cricketers was quite evident in the Women’s T20 Challenge, where the lowest score was Velocity’s 47, which certainly did not make up for a good advertisement for them. Sighting WBBL’s example, which has been one of the key reasons for the Australian team’s domination, Lisa Sthalekar stated that BCCI are going in the right direction but are slow in planning the progress of women cricketers.
"I think they (BCCI) are moving in the right direction but slow in planning a women's IPL and provide enough match practice. The reason why Australian women's cricket is going well is because we have invested in it. Australia are the leaders in creating WBBL, which is in its sixth year. I still remember in the first year, we had only six state teams. But we went ahead and were extended by two teams," she said.
Thrashing all the nay-sayers, who sight lack of depth as the reason for not expanding, the former Australian captain added that investment and time are needed to get some results.
"I hear the argument in India that we just don't have the depth, but we didn't think we had the depth either. Maybe the teams (in WBBL) were a little bit weaker when we started but we have more girls pick up the bat and ball now and we are seeing quality teams. You have to take a bit of a gamble, but when is the right time to do anything? Probably yesterday," Sthalekar added.
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