India Women will compete in the ICC Women’s World Cup final on Sunday (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said the board remains committed to supporting women’s red-ball cricket and is working to increase the number of Test matches and multi-day games on the domestic circuit. Speaking after India’s record-breaking run chase against Australia in the ODI Women’s World Cup semi-final, Saikia praised the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team for their remarkable performance and said the growing support for women’s cricket was evident. “The BCCI is firmly committed to increasing the number of women’s Test matches and also increasing the volume of multi-day games at the domestic level,” Saikia told PTI. “Basically, women play more white-ball cricket – T20Is and ODIs. About three years ago, India started playing multi-day (Test) cricket with Australia, New Zealand and England as well. When Jay Shah was the BCCI secretary, he took a special initiative to promote women’s Test cricket. So now we are playing Test matches.” Saikia acknowledged the need to strengthen the domestic structure with longer format tournaments to help players adapt to Test cricket. “At the senior level, we need to have more multi-day tournaments, that’s one area we need to work on. All our domestic tournaments are mainly T20 or 50-over matches. We may have to introduce some multi-day tournaments like the men’s Ranji Trophy,” he said. On India’s future plan, Saikia added, “We are already playing Test matches against England and Australia, but we have to find a way to include multi-day matches in all bilateral series.” The BCCI official also reflected on the impact of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) and credited it for changing the landscape of women’s cricket in India. “When the WPL was introduced in a very professional manner with a lot of sponsorship, viewership, television and digital platforms, there was a paradigm shift in women’s cricket in India,” he said. Saikia further stated that a World Cup win could take the game to new heights. “Now, if we win this trophy, it can certainly have the same impact as in 1983. Women’s cricket has already made a mark, but this will further push them to a higher position,” he said.
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He also noted the overwhelming response at the DY Patil Stadium and called it a sign of how far the women’s game has come. “It was a packed stadium at DY Patil, which was not very common earlier. It gave a lot of volume to the future success of Indian women’s cricket,” Saikia said.
