2018 Review: 5 firsts for Indian women's cricket
Indian women's cricket has seen a lot of reforms in the structure from bottom to the highest level since the finals of women's World Cup 2017. That event was very much responsible for triggering the rise of women's cricket in many parts of the country irrespective of small or big.
However, by all means, it was a breakthrough event from Women in Blue. They received the due recognition. Although, there were certain other achievements they received off the field like unprecedented coverage in the country, respect among the cricket fraternity, and the international acknowledgement were a few of them.
All in all, it worked out well for Indian women cricket. They were successful enough in registering themselves into the minds of male chauvinist administration. They forced BCCI to think beyond conventional, and planned out some significant strategies for the upliftment of women's cricket in India.
As a result, BCCI, the national governing body for cricket in India, showered its love with 'many firsts' for women's cricket. Best of the things that happened to women's cricket in India in 2018 are discussed below.
#5 Introduction of nine new teams
On the day of the domestic calendar announcement, BCCI came up with a very fine decision of including more teams. Earlier, there were 27 teams, and with the inclusion of nine more teams, it became a total of 36 teams participating in the domestic tournaments.
The teams from the Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttarakhand were the new addition to the Indian domestic cricket.
With the introduction of more teams, BCCI also made sure they don't complicate the existing structure rather keep it simple. They merged all Plate groups into one and placed all new teams into that. Elite Group A, B and C were extended to nine teams each. So, finally four groups with nine teams each.
Ultimately, teams, those were getting four to five games in their group would get eight games at least. More teams, more games and more exposure.