Women's T20 Challenge: To be in a league of their own

There were frequent calls for a photo shoot with every player inside a hall at the Cricket Club of India. Outside, in one part of the Brabourne Stadium, Australia captain Meg Lanning was giving camera bytes to the official broadcaster. Moments later, India's Veda Krishnamurthy was interviewing Ellyse Perry of Australia for Indian Premier League's (IPL) official website.

Amidst all this, a middle-aged man walked up to a couple of waiting scribes and asked: "Is there some shooting going on here?"

He was right, as well as wrong.

A total of 26 women cricketers, split in two teams of pink and blue jerseys, assembled under the extreme Mumbai heat to prepare for the one-off Women's T20 Challenge exhibition match here at the Wankhede on Tuesday afternoon, an encounter that would precede the Qualifier 1 between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.

The game will be broadcast live on television on the same channel that will show MS Dhoni and Kane Williamson walk out for the toss, something that is rare for Indian women's cricket.

And the emphasis throughout Monday, thus, was as much about camera bytes and photo shoots as it was about warm-up and training, as much about selling the match as it was about playing the match.

For a long time now, there have been many a hopefuls in the Indian cricket fraternity that have spoken about kick-starting a women's IPL. There have been frequent murmurs, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been largely muted about the concept.

Until now.

Tuesday's match will be the first-ever of its kind in India, a T20 competition between two women teams comprising Indian and foreign stars.

And although it is just an exhibition match, it is an audition of sorts for the women's IPL, largely to gauge whether it can be a product that would be accepted by the audience.

Excitement galore

No wonder, there was a palpable sense of adventure, excitement as well as nervousness among the players on Monday as they went about their training – and shooting – business.

"We are very excited," Harmanpreet Kaur, the dashing Indian batswoman and T20I captain, said here on Monday.

"We have been waiting for a long time to play an IPL-like tournament. We are happy that we have finally got an opportunity," she added.

Kaur will lead the IPL Supernovas, while the other side, the IPL Trailblazers, will be led by Smriti Mandhana, the swashbuckling Indian opener.

Apart from all the Indian stars, both teams will have the cream of the world's top players including Australians Lanning, Perry, Alyssa Healy, New Zealand's Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Danielle Wyatt of England among others.

"This is the first time we will be playing with foreign players on Indian soil," Mandhana said. "We are all looking forward to putting up a good show, so that we can express ourselves in front of the audience and (tell the) BCCI that (women's) IPL will be good to watch too."

Going the WBBL way

A women's T20 league isn't an alien concept, though.

Cricket Australia (CA) launched the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) alongside the men's tournament in the 2015-16 season, and has managed to run for three seasons now.

Bates, who smashed a 65-ball century in the (WBBL) last year, says the league has slowly yet steadily increased the level of interest in women's cricket Down Under.

And she believes the same mantra will work wonders for women's cricket in India too.

"I think this (women's league) is going to be absolutely key if we want to see more female cricketers in India seeing it as a career and really training hard to make it to the big stage," Bates said.

"In the WBBL, you always had the Australian players that were great players and worked hard. But now, younger players are able to make it to the Big Bash teams and be the best cricketers they can be. That just lifts the standards. So, if that can happen in India, it would be massive for the women's game," she added.

Timing no matter

Tuesday can definitely be the starting point for that, the only hindrance being the timing of the match.

A 2pm start, apart from being taxing on the players, is bound to spoil the spectator attendance on a working day. But Kaur hopes a true cricket fan defies those odds.

"Those who like cricket, nothing matters to them. If people like women's cricket, they will watch the game. And those who are involved in cricket, for them conditions and time doesn't matter because when I was not playing, I have woken at 3am and seen India matches," she said.

For Mandhana, the fact that they're playing an IPL-style match itself is rewarding enough, the timing notwithstanding.

"Whenever I went to the Big Bash, all of them used to ask me when is the (women's) IPL starting, and I had no answer to them," she said.

There might still be no answers, but Tuesday is a beginning.

'WOMEN'S IPL CAN HAVE 4-5 TEAMS'

Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana said a women's IPL can be started with four-five teams, taking the quantity of top-level women cricketers around the world into account. "We cannot have eight teams, but we can have an IPL of four-five teams to start with," Mandhana said. Kaur, on her part said: "We have 20 girls who are representing India, and apart from it, there is an India 'A' team. So, we do have 30-35 girls. Everything else depends on tomorrow's (Tuesday) match and how we get the response from the public. And if there is good response, BCCI is very keen to form a T20 tournament from next year."

SQUADS

IPL Trailblazers: Smriti Mandhana (C), Alyssa Healy (WK), Suzie Bates, Deepti Sharma, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues, Danielle Hazell, Shikha Pandey, Lea Tahuhu, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Poonam Yadav, Dayalan Hemalatha

IPL Supernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Danielle Wyatt, Mithali Raj, Meg Lanning, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Pooja Vastrakar, Megan Schutt, Rajseshwari Gayakwad, Anuja Patil, Taniya Bhatia (WK)

WHO CAN WATCH AND HOW

Spectators with tickets for the Qualifier 1 between SRH and CSK can watch the T20 Challenge match, gates for which will open at 1pm. While tickets are valid for both the matches, there will be no re-entry once inside the stadium. Live on: Star Sports network, 2pm