"We want to see it happen" - Alyssa Healy on the Women's IPL
Australian superstar Alyssa Healy has expressed her disappointment at the continued absence of a Women's IPL, days after the marquee tournament welcomed two new franchises into the fold.
Groundbreaking bids were made for two new IPL franchises based out of Lucknow and Ahmedabad on Monday (October 25), which saw a combined INR 12715 crore invested into the tournament.
According to a report in The Australian, Alyssa Healy, who is currently plying her trade for the Sydney Sixers in the 7th edition of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), expressed her hope at the women's game growing stronger in India in the years to come.
Alyssa Healy disappointed with the Women's T20 Challenge not taking place
As per the same report, Alyssa Healy was disappointed that the postponed Women's T20 Challenge, which takes place towards the end of the IPL, was not rescheduled either. Here's what she had to say:
"I feel like I have made some thoughts known in the past about the way that has unfolded. From a personal perspective it was disappointing they postponed the women’s exhibition games. They did everything they possibly could to put the back end of the IPL on (after it was abandoned in April) leading into a World Cup and then within a week of that starting they have two new men’s IPL teams. They’ve made all those moves and there’s still no word on whether they are even going to play the postponed exhibition games. They just got a $2bn payday and hopefully some of that will go back into women’s cricket and maybe a women’s IPL in the near future."
Healy further elaborated on the need to strengthen world cricket and said:
"But we want to see it happen, we want to see world cricket really strong and that’s the next step, for India to put on a showcase of an event and show the world how good these young Indian players are."
According to the same report, the opening weekend of WBBL 07 saw a mind-boggling 1.113 million viewers tuning in. Going by that, one can only imagine the escalating heights of those numbers should a full-fledged women's IPL kickstart anytime soon.
Indian star shines in the WBBL
The current edition of the Women's Big Bash League features as many as eight Indian internationals participating, the most in any single season thus far. Two of them are Alyssa Healy's teammates at the Sydney Sixers - first-timers Radha Yadav and Shafali Verma.
Shafali has been opening the batting with Alyssa Healy this season, although she is yet to light up the tournament with just 65 runs, including a half-century, to her name. Things have been a lot different for Jemimah Rodrigues though, with the right-hander amongst the tournament's leading run-getters thus far.
Rodrigues also picked up the Player of the Match award for her stunning unbeaten 75 that led Melbourne Renegades to a win over Sydney Thunder on Wednesday. Indian T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur is also a teammate of Rodrigues at the Renegades.
T20I vice-captain and star batter Smriti Mandhana, all-rounder Deepti Sharma (both Sydney Thunder), wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh (Hobart Hurricanes) and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav (Brisbane Heat) are the other Indian players participating in WBBL 07.