EXCLUSIVE | Anjum Chopra Wants Inaugural Women’s IPL To Be Played At ‘Smaller Venues’
New Delhi: Former India women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra feels the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should allocate inaugural WIPL matches to ‘smaller venues’ so as to give the players a packed stadium to play in front off.
The BCCI has given a green signal to the inaugural season of Women’s IPL last year during the AGM with proper bidding and auction of players, just like the men’s tournament. Although the board hasn’t officially declared the dates yet, it is expected to happen in March this year.
“I would love to see Women’s IPL being taken to smaller venues,” Chopra said in an exclusive interaction with India.com and Cricket Country on Friday. “When I say smaller venues, it means there is not men’s IPL happening or there is not that much of cricket being played on a regular basis because you want more and more people to come and watch women’s cricket.
“When I say smaller venue means, its not a big stadium like an Eden Gardens for example. There is a different kind of energy when you play in a packed stadium. The feel and the vibe is very different,” added the cricketer-turned-commentator.
The BCCI has recently sold the WIPL media rights to Viacom 18 for INR 950 crore. The five franchises will ve revealed on January 25 when the bids will be opened. Recent reports suggest that BCCI would allow five overseas players in the playing XI, comapred to four used in the Women’s T20 Challenge, which ran for three seasons till last year.
“Whether its five international players of six international players, it really doesn’t matter. If India doesnt have that much women’s talent right now to match to what the men’s IPL talent, that is because obviously it (men’s tournament) has grown.
“Women’s cricket talent has also grown but at the same time if the league needs certain kind of international flavour for that sort of entertainment to the audience and to te viewers, there is no harm in it.
“If today there are five or six players to be played, I am sure a couple of years down the line that number can definitely come down. The idea is that the pool should increase for Indian domestic women’s players and at the same time the quality of the league should also increase,” she added.
However, Chopra doesn’t want to look too far with the tournament at this moment but wants to focus on delivering the first season of WIPL. “Let’s have te first year first. To say five years down the line or say next 10 years, its a nice estimation to make in terms of numbers.
“It will obviously become better because that’s why the product has been initiated. The growth of women’s cricket, we have already seen, it’s pretty nice. So where it goes five years down the line is obviously a hopeful direction. Let’s wait for the first season to happen”, she signed off.