BCCI planning to conduct women's T20 matches during IPL

What's the story?

In what will be a welcome move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India are mulling to conduct a few women'sT20 matches during the Indian Premier League in April and May.

"If we find that we can host a few exhibition matches then BCCI would like to do it this year. The women cricketers deserve to play IPL," Committee of Administrators chairman Vinod Rai told the Times of India on Sunday.

The reason for doing so is to test the matches before launching a women's T20 league.

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The same proposal was put forth in the IPL's Governing Council meeting in October last year, where the members had also discussed the probability of hosting an event for the junior cricketers as well.

The IPL begins on April 7 in Mumbai and will go on until May 27, with the final taking place in Mumbai as well.

The details:

Ever since the ICC Women's World Cup, which took place last year, the popularity of women's cricket has increased a lot. The Indian women's side has gained a lot of fans over the past year or so and they have been performing exceptionally well.

A lot of them have opened up about the need for a women's T20 league.

"The IPL GC may discuss it for sure. If it's feasible we will do it. I am all for women's IPL. But it's too late this year to come up with a full-fledged event because of time constraint. We need a different window and, therefore, we can't rush into it. It needs a lot of planning," said Diana Edulji, a former member of the Indian cricket team and current member of the CoA.

Author's take:

It will be a welcome move to host a few women's T20 matches during the IPL as it would help in the promotion of women's cricket, and gain a lot of followers as well.

These matches could also help in the commencement of a global T20 league for the women, similar to that of the IPL.