There is a need for a dedicated women's cricket team calendar: Mithali Raj

Mithali Raj is the leading run-getter in women’s ODIs with 6,888 runs from 209 matches averaging 50.64. The 37-year-old announced last year that she’d be retiring from the shortest format of the game. She has captained India in more World Cups than any other captain. 

The veteran women’s cricketer appeared on a webinar discussing the 'Resetting the Sports Ecosystem: Opportunities in The New Normal World' at FICCI FRAMES.

"Unfortunately, women's cricket may have been set back by a couple of years by this pandemic as some of the momentum that had been built between India's success in World Cup 2017 and World T20 2020 has been lost," the veteran women’s cricketer said. 

Mithali also said she had a talk with the BCCI bosses about the need for a dedicated women's cricket team calendar. "We have had discussions with BCCI to draw up a firm calendar for the Indian women's team so that fans can regularly cheer for the team.

Indian women's team captain added to her above comment that she has been positive about a potential rebuilding of women’s cricket in India. "The plans have obviously been disrupted but we believe we can re-build quickly. I think a full-fledged Women's IPL is still 2-3 years away but we would certainly look to have a fourth team in the Women's Challenge that is played concurrently with the IPL."