Image Credit- MI
According to Jhulan Goswami, a former fast bowler for India, “franchise cricket is the future of women’s cricket” and T20 leagues should take precedence over bilateral series. The leading wicket-taker in women’s One-Day Internationals, Goswami has spent the previous two seasons as the bowling coach and mentor for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). She is scheduled to join the coaching staff of the Trinbago Knight Riders for the forthcoming Women’s CPL.
“It’s a big challenge for women’s cricket,” Goswami said on ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast about the calendar clashes. “Earlier we saw these things happen for men’s cricket but never expected it to happen for women’s cricket, but that’s happening. And I’m happy to see that. The ICC needs to take care, franchise cricket is the future of women’s cricket. And that’s the growth of women’s cricket globally. You have to give priority to every franchise league otherwise cricket will not grow.”
In women’s cricket, the dispute between club and country has intensified, particularly in the past few years as T20 leagues have begun to spread internationally. Prominent Australian players, including Meg Lanning, Ashleigh Gardner, and Tahlia McGrath, withdrew from the women’s Hundred last year in order to better manage their workloads ahead of a busy 2023 that included bilateral assignments, the WBBL, the T20 World Cup, and the inaugural WPL season. In 2023, Smriti Mandhana, the vice captain of India, also withdrew from the WBBL for the second consecutive year in order to concentrate on playing domestic cricket.
“See how many quality cricketers were produced by franchise cricket in the last few years, starting with WBBL as well as the Hundred, WCPL, WPL,” Goswami said. “A lot of youngsters they’ve provided every year so you have to give priority to those windows and after that you have to have bilateral series. If you have your bilateral series and franchise leagues clashing then you will lose out on quality cricketers. And if you don’t have quality cricketers then your tournament is not going to be successful.
“In women’s cricket we don’t have a lot of options, a few quality cricketers we have in the world. If they’re occupied in bilateral series, then the volume of the [T20] tournaments is going to go down. We should make sure that when the premier league (franchise) tournaments are going on, give them certain windows and after that you have the bilateral series. It will help women’s cricket’s growth also. That is my personal view.”