Be expanded

New Delhi: From one exhibition match last year, the women’s participation in the IPL is set to become a three-team affair spread over seven to 10 days with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) mulling an expansion this year. However, the full fledged women’s IPL is still a long shot as, according to an official, the BCCI is finding it extremely difficult to get good investors/team bidders. Last year, the BCCI organised one exhibition match with two teams — IPL Trailblazers and IPL Supernovas led by Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur respectively. This year, the parent body, currently run by the Supreme Court-appointed two-member CoA, wants to scale it up a bit in order to set the ball rolling for a women’s IPL in a few years’ time. “Yes, the women’s T20 matches will be held this year also. It will be a week to 10 days affair during the men’s IPL. Once the BCCI gets clearance from the election commission and Home Ministry on dates, the itinerary will be fixed,” a senior board functionary said. However, the official said it would be difficult to have more than three teams considering the “quality” of India's bench strength in women's cricket. “At the max, we can have three teams with Harmanpreet, Smriti and may be Mithali (for this year) leading the sides. They play against each other once and the top two play a tournament decider,” the official said.