New Delhi: The BCCI has approved two new teams for the IPL series, Lucknow and Ahmedabad. This increased the number of IPL teams from 8 to 10. The BCCI continues to invest in men’s cricket, but does not attach much importance to women’s cricket.
On the one hand, the BCCI has been facing criticism for not starting the IPL, despite the accolades for the ICCI for amassing millions through the IPL.
Despite the victories of the Australian Women’s Big Bash League and the UK Women’s Super League, questions were raised by the BCCI about the absence of the Women’s T20 League in India, the largest market for cricket. BCCI President Saurav Ganguly has made an important announcement ahead of the 15th season of the IPL. In it, he said that the IPL, the league that had so far been introduced only in men’s cricket, was still in discussions to expand to women’s cricket and a decision on this would be taken in the next few months.
While many former women cricketers have already been vocal in their support for matches like the IPL in women’s cricket, it is noteworthy that recently the T20 captain of the Indian cricket team, Harmanpreet Kaur, has been commenting in support of the women’s IPL. So the BCCI is expected to announce the Women’s T20 League matches soon.