Jemimah Rodrigues: Women’s Indian Premier League can build on the Hundred’s work

The expected launch of a women’s Indian Premier League in March will echo the enormous impact of the Hundred in England, believes Jemimah Rodrigues.

The 21-year old is back with the Northern Superchargers for a second season of the 100-ball competition, just over a week after sealing silver with India in women’s cricket’s Commonwealth Games debut.

While opinions are still strongly split over the men’s Hundred, the inaugural season was seen as a resounding success for its acceleration of the women’s game, momentum Rodrigues is keen to recreate back home.

“[The IPL] is looking like it’s going to happen for sure this time, and we’re really, really looking forward to it,” the batter told the PA news agency.

“It will change things massively, like how the Hundred changed cricket in England and the WBBL [Women’s Big Bash League] changed cricket in Australia, I’m sure the women’s IPL will change the game drastically in India, and maybe that will be key to winning the gold and winning trophies.”

The first edition of the Hundred broke both viewing and attendance records for the domestic women’s game and forged a new audience. A February Women’s Sport Trust report revealed 25%, or 2.7 million viewers, who had watched England women or the women’s edition of the Hundred did not watch a single televised match of men’s cricket last year.

In March, Sourav Ganguly, president of the the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told reporters: “It [the full-fledged women’s IPL] has to be approved by the AGM. We plan to start it by next year hopefully.”

Conversations surrounding potential women’s IPL launch have escalated this week, with multiple Indian media outlets suggesting plans for a March 2023 start were all but rubber-stamped.

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