BCCI must stop our women's cricketers from playing in overseas leagues: Diana Edulji

Mumbai: The continuous poor performance of the Indian women's team -a league stage exit in the T20 World Cup in the UAE was followed by a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Australia in Australia in an ODI series-has hurt the team's fans.
However, the person perhaps left most pained is former India captain Diana Edulji, who as a member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) running the BCCI in 2018-19 did much to bring the facilities for women's game at par with men's cricket in India.
"The performance of our women’s team for the past few months has been thoroughly disappointing. Sadly, this is happening despite the BCCI providing our team with all the facilities which we lacked earlier, like good match fees and top-class hotels to stay in and first-class air travel. I think it’s time that a young team is picked. If you have to lose, better to lose with younger players. At least, they will learn from the experience,” Edulji, who paid a visit to the Mumbai Cricket Association's 'cricket kit fair' at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday morning, told TOI. Firmer India pacer and ex-India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey was the chief guest on the occasion.
Does the Indian women’s team require a change in leadership? “I don’t think that the results will change if you change the captain (Harmanpreet Kaur) or the head coach (Amol Muzumdar). It’s the players who’ve to pull up their socks and perform much better than they currently are,” she asserted.
A major grey area of the India women’s team, Edulji stressed was lack of fitness. “I think that our players are ‘zero’ when it comes to fitness, which is why you see that they are getting injured so frequently. Yastika Bhatia just came back into the team and got injured again. Priya Punia (opener) replaced Shafali Verma for the Australia tour, but got injured in the first ODI itself and couldn't play any further in the series. This reflects really poor fitness. And because the player aren't fit, their fielding and running between the wickets is really poor,"
The former India left-arm spinner wants the BCCI to take a few solid step to ensure that the top player of the Indian women's team remain committed to the cause of Indian cricket. "Like in the case of men's cricket in India, the BCCI must bar our women players too from participating in these overseas T20 leagues. Now that you have the Women's Premier League, who do you want to play in the Women's Big Bash League or 'The Hundred?' Even if our players don't play in these overseas leagues, all the foreign players will still come to India to play in the WPL because they'll get good money. I mean, the same (Indian) players were playing well in the WBBL on the same grounds in Australia for almost the past couple of months, but have come up a cropper in this series," Edulji pointed out.
She also recommends that the WPL's boundary sizes should be of the international standard, and not shortened, as has been the case in the past two editions, to enable more fours and sixes. "There's no point in reducing the boundaries for the WPL, as it will defeat the purpose of holding the tournament. Our players will get exposed badly in international cricket, as most of their shots will land up as catches in the outfield," Edulji remarked.
The former administrator fears that Harmanpreet Kaur & Co will lose confidence ahead of the 2025 ODI World Cup in India, if they keep getting hammered by the Aussies-they lost the first ODI by five wickets (after getting bowled out for 100), the second by 122 runs (Australia scored 371 for eight in 50 overs) and the third ODI by 83 runs "I don't understand why we are hosting the West Indies for a (white-ball series) so soon after returning from Australia, but we must play a team like, say Zimbabwe to regain our confidence. Getting thrashed kike this by Aussies will destroy our player's confidence completely," Edulji asserted.
Not amused by Indian women's team's captain Harmanpreet Kaur's statement after being blanked by the Aussies in the ODI series, that 'We have a lot to learn,' Edulji fumed: "After every tournament/series, you are saying the same thing — 'we have a lot to learn.' It's deplorable that you are still learning after playing international cricket for so many years."
She felt that the team was unsettled by too many changes in the playing XI. "There is just too much chopping and changing of the team all the time. Pacer Arundhati Reddy was brought in the final ODI at Perth, and she took four for 26. Why didn't she get a chance earlier in the series?" Edulji wondered.
The 68-year-old wasn't too impressed by India's vice-captain Smriti Mandhana's century in the final ODI at Perth. "Our senior players seem to have become complacent. They are just playing to save their place in the team for the next series," Edulji felt.