WV Raman believes women's IPL is still a work in progress

Indian women's team coach WV Raman believes that the team's performance in the recently concluded World T20 has injected confidence in every player and could push youngsters in the country to take up the sport as their profession.

The Indian team, led by Harmanpreet Kaur put together an unbeaten run to make the semifinals and courtesy of their top spot finish from Group A, booked a spot in the final despite a washout against England in their last-four clash.

However, they were outplayed by hosts Australia in the final, and Raman narrowed it down to the lack of consistency and experience of playing together as a team.

I'm trying to create a team which will play together for 6-8 years and dominate world cricket. That's what sets the Australian team apart. As a team, they have played quite a few finals together and that's the reason why they dominated the World Cup.

Raman also stressed on needing to let Shafali Verma shape her talent in the right way and shared his thoughts on the youngsters putting up a good show.

T20 wasn't a format in which we were consistent. So, youngsters coming in and doing what they did was tremendous.

With the IPL carving out careers for youngsters, the rumour mills have been churning out discussions about an IPL for women. However, Raman downplays the idea, citing the need for women's cricket to grow a lot more before such a large scale tournament is conceptualised.

If we are talking of a tournament on the same scale as the men's, which means eight teams in the fray, I think we need time to give the concept shape. We have to take it slow and steady.

We are looking for exposure tours for the U-19, U-23 and India 'A' teams only now. With the U-19 World Cup scheduled next year, we will have a lot more talent coming in. So, in 3-4 years it will be ideal to start a full-fledged IPL for women.