Diana Edulji thanks IPL Governing Council in taking her vision forward  

Former India cricketer Diana Edulji has thanked the IPL Governing Council for taking her vision forward in promoting women’s cricket. Edulji was a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) and during her time had started the Women's T20 Challenge in 2018 giving wings to dreams of women cricketers in the country.

On Sunday (August 2), the IPL GC announced that the women’s T20 Challenge will held in UAE during the men’s IPL play-offs possibly between November 1-10. “I am thankful to the GC for continuing to promote women's cricket. I am happy that an effort I started during my time in the BCCI as a CoA member is being carried forward and hopefully we will see a women's IPL soon. Good luck to the women cricketers for the upcoming season,” Edulji was quoted as saying to IANS.

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The T20 Challenge started with two teams in 2018 before it was a three-team event last year. This year one more team was slated to join in but due to COVID-19 crisis, everything went up in smoke. The tournament in UAE will be a continuation of the previous year. Although many players have raised their voices for a full-fledged women’s IPL, it’s going to take time before anything materializes.

However, there have been speculations on social media that by announcing the women’s tournament, the BCCI Chief Sourav Ganguly wanted to take the credit. But a board functionary rubbished all such claims stating that it was the former skipper, who wanted to highlight that the process of women’s matches alongside men’s IPL should continue.

“To be fair those were not Ganguly’s words. So, it’s unfair to say that he was seeking any credit or publicity. This is now a part of the regular IPL process for the last two-three years and is a part and parcel of the IPL. Why someone would try to package this as some new path-breaking thing is completely beyond me. This comes within the jurisdiction of the IPL Governing Council and Ganguly isn’t a part of that and only attends as an invitee with no vote,” the functionary said.