The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has arranged a Women’s T20 exhibition match ahead of the first qualifier match between Chennai Super Kings and SunRisers Hyderabad.

The Women’s T20 challenge match will be played between Trailblazers led by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur’s Supernovas at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. The T20 challenge match is also crucial because a good response from the crowd may pave the way for Women’s T20 league in India.

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Women cricketers believe that the T20 exhibition match would be a stepping stone for the launch of a women’s T20 league in the country.

Talking to media ahead of the match in Mumbai, Trailblazers’ skipper Smriti Mandhana said, “It is very exciting for all of us to be playing this exhibition match and thankful to BCCI for organsing such a unique match and it is a stepping show to the IPL. And hopefully, we will put up a good show and audience and BCCI people will think of having a (women’s) IPL.”

“This is the first ever match we will be playing with foreign players on Indian soil. Everyone is excited to part of this historical moment. We all are looking forward to put up a good show so that we can express ourselves in front of audience and BCCI that IPL will be good to watch also,” Mandhana added.

Mandhana’s counterpart for the game, Harmanpreet Kaur, echoed her sentiments.

“We are very excited and were waiting for a long time when we could play an IPL like tournament. We are happy that we have got an opportunity tomorrow and hopefully we will get a good match tomorrow,” Harmanpreet Kaur said.

The exhibition match will be played at Wankhede at 2 pm. Despite the scorching heat, the excitement of being part of something special was palpable.

“Cricket match is a cricket match, when a bowler is bowling to you, you don’t think you are playing an exhibition match or you are playing for India or Maharashtra. If you enjoy yourself on the ground, the product will be better. Being an exhibition match, everyone will be looking to enjoy themselves and when you enjoy yourself on the cricket field, you get the best results,” said Mandhana.

“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 don’t matter because when I was not playing, I have woken at 3 AM and seen India matches,” Kaur said.

New Zealand women cricketer Suzie Bates said, “I think this 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. 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.”

“What’s really crucial is the wickets you play on, and because there is less pace in the bowling at the moment, we have to generate a lot more power. So if wickets are fast and the boundaries a bit shorter, that makes for a more exciting game. When you play on slower, older wickets, it makes it tough to create that power and that makes it less exciting. So it’s key that all the countries that get the right wickets. And I think the more the women play T20, just like the men’s game has shown, the better we’re going to get at accessing 360 degrees and to be able to create a more entertaining product,” said Suzie Bates, who is one of the 10 foreign players slated to play the game.

Asked if India had the adequate number of players to form strong IPL teams, both Kaur and Smriti were confident.

“Well we cannot have eight teams, but we can have an IPL of 4-5 teams (for women) to start with,” Mandhana said.

“Definitely not eight teams, not right now. Four to five teams, to start with is a good initiative, because when men’s IPL started, first two seasons only foreigners scored and later on we started developing our bench strength. You never know, that can happen with women’s cricket. Through IPL it’s easier to develop the bench strength. The girls will be playing with all the foreign players along with us and they will learn much quicker.”

“Yes I do think (an IPL can be held for women). We have 20 girls who are representing India – be it T20, 50 over apart from it there is India A team. We do have 30-35 girls. Everything else depends on tomorrow’s match and how we get response from the public. And if there is good response, BCCI is very keen to form such a T20 tournament from next year.”