Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the two teams in the one-off Women’s T20 Challenge on May 22 ahead of the IPL Qualifier 1 in Mumbai.
Get to know the story: BCCI all set to organise IPL women’s T20 exhibition match
There was a demand of women’s IPL since the women in blue went on to play the final of 2017 women’s world cup in England, where they lost to the home team, missing the world cup title by a whisker. However, their performance was highly praised by the fans in India and women’s cricket got all the popularity that it deserved.
BCCI is now eyeing to grow this wave by hosting the inaugural women’s T20 challenge to provide the right platform to the women’s cricket and also pave way for women’s IPL in future.
Rajeev Shukla, Chairman, IPL, said, Even as IPL continues to roll like a well-oiled machine, over the last couple of weeks, efforts were made to put in place a similar structure for women cricketers.
“We were in talks with several Boards and I am pleased with the outcome. New Zealand skipper Suzie Bates, attacking batter Sophie Devine, who holds the record for fastest half-century in women’s T20Is, Australia’s all-rounder Ellyse Perry, wicket-keeper bat Alyssa Healy, Megan Schutt and Beth Mooney have confirmed their participation.
“Danni Wyatt and Daniel Hazell will add the English flavour. This special game will be played at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium and will be telecast live in India and across the world,” said Shukla.
“We are excited to announce the first-of-its-kind exhibition match involving our women cricketers. BCCI has been pulling out all stops to promote and nurture women’s cricket and this is a small yet significant step towards a prospective league involving women’s stars in the future,” said Diana Edulji, member of Committee of Administrators (CoA)
“The IPL is the biggest and most popular league in the world and it has been a long-time endeavour to have a women’s league that can match the exuberance of IPL. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Veda Krishanmurthy among others rubbing shoulders with foreign stars will be a unique experience and something that we have not witnessed here in India.
The T20 match will begin at 14:00 IST and will be followed by the IPL 2018 Qualifier 1 at 19:00 IST
