In the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in March gave a green signal for the commencement of Women’s IPL from next year (2023) which would take the women’s cricket in the country to greater heights and help them compete with the best champion teams of the world including the likes of Australia and England.
Heaping praise on the Women’s IPL, New Zealand women’s cricket team skipper Sophie Devine has said that the competition will definitely be a huge boost for Indian cricket apart from being the next step for her. Explaining further, Devine said that this will serve as a platform for younger talents in the country and they will have an opportunity to learn a lot from the exposure that they will get from the foreign players. “From an outsider’s perspective, it certainly is the next step for me. And you know, sounds like there’s some really encouraging move towards hopefully a women’s IPL next year. Yeah, I echo Alyssa’s comments that as soon as that tournament happens, I’m going to be scared about what’s coming out of India,” Devine was quoted as saying in an interview with Scroll.
“We’ve already seen the likes of Smriti Mandhana, some of these young players coming through, obviously Shafali Verma as well, there’s so much talent there. And the more exposure that they get to overseas players, again, playing more cricket at a higher standard, their game is just going to go up,” she added. The inaugural edition of the Women’s IPL that gets underway in 2023 will be expected to be a similar competitive platform to the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Women’s The Hundred tournament that got a great response after its first edition last year. At the same time, all eyes will also be on the performances of India’s cricketing talents like Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Priya Punia, to name a few.
