BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said the board remains committed to promoting women’s red-ball cricket and is working towards increasing the number of Test matches and multi-day games in the domestic circuit. Speaking after India’s record chase against Australia in the Women’s ODI World Cup semi-final, Saikia praised the team led by Harmanpreet Kaur for their remarkable performance and said the growing support for women’s cricket is evident. “The BCCI is firmly committed towards increasing the number of Test matches for women as well as increasing the volume of multi-day games at the domestic level,” Saikia told PTI. “Basically, women are playing more white ball cricket — T20Is and ODIs. About three years back, India re-started playing multi-days (Test) cricket with Australia, New Zealand, England also. When Jay Shah was the secretary of BCCI, he took special initiative to promote women’s Test cricket. So we now are playing Test matches.” Saikia acknowledged the need to strengthen the domestic structure with longer-format tournaments to help players adapt to Test cricket. “At the senior level, we must have more multi-day tournaments, that is one area where we have to work out. All our domestic tournaments are mainly either T20 or 50-over matches. Maybe we will have to introduce some tournaments having multi-days competition just like the Ranji Trophy for the men,” he said. On India’s schedule going forward, Saikia added, “Already we are playing Test matches against England and Australia but we must find a way to include multi-day matches in all bilateral series.” The BCCI official also reflected on the impact of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), crediting it for changing the landscape of women’s cricket in India. “When WPL was introduced in a very professional manner with a lot of sponsorship, viewership, television and digital platforms, there was a paradigm shift in the women’s cricket in India,” he said. Saikia further stated that a World Cup victory could elevate the game to new heights. “Now if we win this trophy, it can definitely have the same impact of 1983. Already women’s cricket has made a mark but this will further take them to a higher position,” he said.
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He also noted the overwhelming response at DY Patil Stadium, calling it a sign of how far the women’s game has come. “It was a packed stadium in DY Patil, which was not very common earlier. It has given a lot of volume to the future success of Indian women’s cricket,” Saikia said.
