Fifteen years after the game-changing men's Indian Premier League was launched, it is time for women's cricket to take centre stage. The long-awaited Women's Premier League, a T20 franchise-based league, will finally get underway on 4 March at Navi Mumbai's DY Patil Stadium.
"You have to wait for the good things in life," Poonam Yadav, who has represented India at multiple World Cups, tells Mint in a virtual interview. "It is a very big step for women's cricket in India. Earlier, women's players had to depend on our jobs, like our generation of players would depend on (public sector) jobs. But now we have a platform where they don't have to think of that. They can dream big." Yadav, the 31-year-old leg-break bowler, has been picked by the Delhi Capitals for the inaugural edition of the WPL. Delhi, along with Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, own teams in the IPL as well. Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz complete the roster for the five-team League, which will take place in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai from 4-26 March.
The League is a big leap ahead for women' cricket in India, which has been on the upswing for the past decade. Gone are the days when cricket was considered a gentleman's sport. "If you look at the state I come from, Uttar Pradesh, they don't like girls playing sport," recalls Yadav. "When I started playing, my own brother used to tell me, don't play cricket.
I understand his point of view, he was looking out for me. It wasn't his fault. This is the society we have created.
"One of my friends told my mother not to send me since I was the only girl playing cricket. I had to stop playing gully cricket because of that. A lot of other would jest that what will I do in cricket, at the most play for the state team, or sit on the bench and carry drinks. When I was selected in the India team, they admitted they were wrong.
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