Indian-Women-Team. (Photo Source: X/BCCI)
After their recent success against England and Australia in Test cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are evaluating various methods to enhance red-ball cricket among women. As per reports, the idea is to host multiple day matches to bring new cricketers into the foray and to give others a chance to build their game in order to make it to the national team.
Notably, the governing body organises List A, T20 and age group matches for women in India but multi-day matches stopped in 2018. They are now set to bring them back as the goal is to start three-day tournaments after the second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), which is reportedly said to begin on the last week of February.
“It will be a three-day tournament to start with. Due to the constraint of time we are thinking of starting with zonal format initially. The tournament will be concluded in the month of March-April. We don’t have red ball cricket for the women’s team (currently) and the BCCI felt it’s time to start day’s cricket as well as domestic cricket for womens,” a BCCI official told The Indian Express.
When you play the longer formats more, you learn to play proper cricketing shots: Diana Edulji
Former India skipper Diana Edulji stated that the cricketers will learn a lot from playing longer format games as it will help them play proper cricketing shots. She explained the importance of playing three-day, and four-day matches as the 67-year-old mentioned that cricketers will learn a lot about temperament by playing more red-ball games.
“The most important thing is to have a domestic three-day or four-day event. I feel you learn the temperament to stay at the wicket by playing more of this format, it is not that in T20 you just swing your bat around for a while. Even there, you need to understand how to learn to spend time in the middle. When you play the longer formats more, you learn to play proper cricketing shots. I request the BCCI to have at least one domestic tournament every year for the longer version. Skills will improve the more you play the longer version,” Edulji concluded.