Mithali pitches for domestic set-up before IPL

Mithali Raj on Tuesday said an IPL-like event for women will make sense only when the BCCI has in place for them a "strong domestic" setup.

"It's important to have the pool of players, who will be qualified to play IPL kind of a league. As I mentioned (in) India A (team) itself we need quality players. Once we have those many players then it will be wise enough to have an IPL," Mithali, skipper of India's women's Test team, said.

The Cricket Board is organising exhibition matches for women during the upcoming Indian Premier League's 11th season.

With people starting to look up to the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali and Jhulan Goswami, the BCCI decided to organise these exhibition matches, which can also lay the groundwork for women's IPL.

Mithali said, "You can feed in any domestic (players) but then there will be a stark difference between an international player and domestic player. It might go against promoting women's cricket."

"So, I personally believe that when you have strong domestic set-up and churning quality players then giving them an opportunity in IPL makes sense," she said.

Veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, who was sitting alongside Mitahli, agreed with her Test captain.

"That is absolutely right, the domestic set up needs to be a little more stronger," quipped Jhulan.

Meanwhile, India will be a part of the T2O series involving Australia and England, which begins on Thursday in Mumbai and Mithali said before the World T20, the team needs to get its combinations right.

"The team is now preparing for the T20 World Cup this year and it's important that before the World Cup we need to have combinations right. And for that if we have to have few changes in the squad, irrespective of whether the result goes our way or not, it is important because we see the bigger picture preparing for the World Cup," Mithali said.

Quizzed how would the team address the issue of power-hitting, Mithali said that it needs to pick players and give them specific role.

"That's what Australia has been doing since the past couple of years, they have picked up players and they know what they need to do, we need to do the same. We have power hitters like Harmapreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy.

"You have seen Pooja (Vastrakar), she has that ability and we need to give her more abilities to groom into a good all-rounder," she added.

Meanwhile, Jhulun said she was disappointed that she was not a part of the T20 series in South Africa, but as a sportsperson things like injuries would happen.

Time for 2nd string

Indian women's ODI captain Mithali Raj on Tuesday admitted that not having a bench-strength of desired quality is a reality and it will take at least two more years before the next crop of international standard players emerge.

The Indian women's were soundly thrashed 0-3 by their Australian counterparts but the more worrying aspect has been lack of replacements for a lot of non-performers.

The India A team which played a few warm-up games against Australia A and now England A have been wallopped in most of the matches, raising serious questions about reserve bench. Save Jemimah Rodrigues, no top quality talent has emerged from the women's game with most players having been around for 3-4 years now.

"We have just started with India A tours and formation of an A team, since last year, after we came back from the World Cup. It will take sometime. It will take a couple of years to get our second string in place," the straight-talking Mithali put things as it is currently in the women's game.

She believes that international exposure will make them better

"We do have some young talented players, but they need that exposure. So I am sure in a year or two, we will have a better quality of players playing India A," the 35-year-old veteran batter said.

Plans to build bench-strength

India's heavy loss to Australia in the recent Women's ODI Championship fixture has prompted the BCCI to expedite the process of strengthening the bench strength of the national team.

After streamlining the domestic structure and introducing India A tours, the selectors have been asked to handpick a pool of pacers, spinners and wicketkeepers and test them in a camp at the National Cricket Academy beginning later this month.

The likes of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami are not going to be around for long and the board feels that it is time to act now.

The women's committee comprising COA member Diana Edulji, Mithali, Harmanpreet Kaur , Hemlata Kala  and Prof Ratnakar Shetty  will meet on March 28 to review the team's disappointing performance against Australia and discuss the way forward. "There is a definite need for more quality pace bowlers and spinners. The Australia series showed us that. They played our spinners rather easily while our team struggled against theirs. We also need more firepower in the batting department," Edulji said.