DHAKA, August 7, 2019 (BSS) — Rumana Ahmed, the ODI captain of the country’s Women’s Cricket team urged Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to introduce BPL T20 for the female cricketers to give them an opportunity to step ahead with the rhythm of the world.
She said that at the moment there is no lack of enough female cricketers in the country, a thing that BCB always showed as a barrier to introduce this sort of tournament.
Rumana, one of the most experienced female cricketers in the country said that, a total of 12 teams played Women’s Premier League this year, which gave an indication that if BCB wants they could arrange Women’s BPL with the existing players.
“It is said in the past that there was not enough female cricketers in the country, so it’s tough to organize a female team. But this year a total of 12 teams played in the Women’s Premier League. So now it’s possible if we have the desire. I will request our officials and BCB to ponder about that,” Rumana said here on Wednesday.
Bangladesh’s neighbouring country India has already introduced Women’s IPL in the name of Women’s T20 Challenge in 2018. Just two teams took part in this tournament in the inaugural edition but this year three teams played.
The Board of Cricket Control for India (BCCI) has already planned to increase the number of the teams to seven to eight in the next year.
The tournament also paid the rich dividends as far as India’s T20 rankings is concerned as they moved to fifth position in the ICC rankings.
Ruman believed this kind of effect Bangladesh would have in the rankings like India if the BCB inducts T20 tournament for the country’s female cricketers. Bangladesh is currently as ninth ranked team in T20 cricket.
“They have played the tournament with three teams this year and next year the number of the teams will be seven to eight. They have widened their dream and got the result. So I think we can start it with smaller size firstly and then expand it. By doing so, I believe our rankings will be improved much.”
Rumana who is on the verge of being fit fully from the elbow injury also urged all the stakeholders to support Bangladesh Women’s cricket.
“Women’s cricket doesn’t get the publicity like the male cricket. Some days ago our Emerging team played in South Africa. They lost T20 but won the ODI series. However it is very unfortunate that we saw little converge of this tournament. But when male Under-19 team or emerging team played anywhere, they got huge coverage. If all of the stakeholders including journalists and sponsors give us some publicity it would be healthy for Women’s cricket,” she concluded.