Considering the success of the Indian women’s cricket team in the two one-off Tests against Australia and England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to start domestic red-ball competitions for women after the WPL 2024. This was reported by the Indian News Agency Indian Express. The BCCI has not organized a single multi-day sporting event for women since 2018.
The world’s richest cricket board organizes domestic white-ball competitions for women every year and last year also started with the Women’s Premier League, as did the IPL for men. According to the report, the BCCI is expected to begin the multi-day women’s national competition in March and April.
To begin with, the BCCI is likely to start with zonal competitions in this domestic season, while in the future they will look to organize a tournament like the Men’s Ranji Trophy. Zonal selectors will choose the players and the tournament can be expected to last three days with the final being a four-day event.
BCCI to start red ball competition for women: reports
A BCCI official, while talking to Indian Express, said, “To begin with, it will be a three-day tournament. Due to time constraint, we are thinking of initially starting with the zonal format. The tournament will conclude in the month of March-April. “We don’t have red ball cricket for the women’s team (currently) and the BCCI felt it is time to start day cricket as well as domestic cricket for women.”
Many cricket boards in the world do not have any national red-ball competition for women, while only India, Australia and England play red-ball cricket.
Women’s cricket in India has grown a lot in recent years and the performance of Indian stars has also been brilliant on the world stage. India has played Tests against Australia and England on home soil and has also given tough competitions to the two giants of women’s cricket.
After Australia and England, India is currently considered the third biggest team in women’s cricket. Cricketers like Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Varma and captain Harmanpreet Kaur are some of the best players in the current Indian women’s cricket team.
With the start of the Women’s Premier League, many other talented women cricketers like Shreyanka Patil and Saika Ishaque came into the limelight and are some of the most talented Indian cricketers who will surely take the team forward.
India has also performed brilliantly in the recent ICC tournaments, which include the 2017 ODI World Cup final and the 2018 T20 World Cup. India also qualified for the 2022 Commonwealth Games final and the World T20 2023. However, in all these tournaments, India has not been able to win a single trophy.
However, India won gold at the 2023 Asian Games and probably has the character to win an ICC trophy as well. However, India would now want to focus on the upcoming editions of the T20 World Cup and the ODI World Cup and will want to break that knockout barrier and win their first ICC title.
