Women’s IPL: Lalit Modi wants BCCI to make This rule mandatory for existing franchises

After Cricket Australia and England & Wales Cricket Board, several boards have announced hosting a home-grown T20 league for women. Women’s Caribbean Premier League is set to start this year while the Pakistan Cricket Board has also announced hosting Women’s PSL (Pakistan Super League).

The BCCI has been hosting the Women’s T20 Challenge for quite some time during the IPL window which was aimed at checking the feasibility of the Women’s IPL. The board has finally decided to go ahead with the Women’s IPL from 2023 and according to Lalit Modi – the former IPL chairman and the brains behind conceptualisation and beginning of this domestic T20 league – believes the board should make it mandatory for every existing IPL men’s franchise to procure the rights for the women’s side.

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“I didn’t see much of IPL women’s games this year (Women’s T20 Challenge), but I think one of the biggest things they should do is make it mandatory for an IPL franchise to have a women’s team,” Lalit Modi told NDTV.

“If an IPL franchise owner is able to have a women’s team, you’ll see the bench strength in Indian women’s cricket go up. You’ll see investment in women’s cricket by owners who are already making good money now,” he added.

Earlier this month, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah hinted that several of the existing IPL franchise have shown their interest in buying the women’s IPL franchise.

“This is a project which is very close to my heart. We will start with either five or six teams in the first edition. I am thrilled at the kind of response we have got from stakeholders. Multiple existing IPL teams have enquired and expressed serious interest in owning WIPL franchises,” Shah told PTI after the BCCI fetched an eye-popping amount for the IPL media rights for the next five years.

Earlier during the IPL, senior India and Rajasthan Royals spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin claimed that his franchise owners are willing to own a women’s IPL franchise ever since the BCCI announced its plan to host a full-fledged women’s IPL from 2023. Ashwin mentioned on ESPNCricinfo’s Polite Enquiries in April this year, that he had a chat with RR’s CEO Jake Lush McCrum and he was looking forward to it.

“The other day I was having a chat with the (RR) CEO. I read an article on some six teams possible for the women’s IPL. I just wanted to check because there are 10 franchises at this point and Jake was up in the arms. He said, ‘Of course! It’s going to be something that we are very, very passionate [about] and very, very interested in,” Ashwin said.