The BCCI plans to introduce a five-team women’s IPL in March 2023.
The proposed schedule includes 22 matches, with a maximum of five overseas players in each XI.
The women’s IPL is likely to begin next year, with the BCCI planning a five-team competition for March 2023, immediately following the conclusion of the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa on February 26.
The BCCI’s proposed schedule includes 22 matches, with each squad consisting of 18 players, with a maximum of six from overseas. A playing XI can only have five foreign players, four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate country.
Women’s IPL to become a reality
The BCCI is yet to finalize the WIPL schedule, but it will be finalized before the men’s IPL begins, which is expected at the end of March.
“It will be a challenge to play the WIPL in the home and away format, because with five to six teams it is not possible to have a match every day,” the BCCI said in its paper on the WIPL, which was sent to the states as part of the wider agenda for the board’s annual general meeting scheduled in Mumbai on October 18.
“It is suggested that the tournament can be played in caravan style, where after finishing ten matches at one venue, the next ten matches to be played at the next venue. Therefore, ten matches each to be played across two venues in the 2023 WIPL season, ten each in the next two venues in the 2024 season, and for the 2025 season ten matches in the remaining one venue and the remaining ten in one of the venues from 2023 season.”
The teams.
The BCCI has devised two strategies for the WIPL. The first consists of selling teams spread throughout six zones around the country. Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South), and Guwahati have been shortlisted (North-East).
The second strategy involves selling teams but not establishing a firm home base, with matches held at six shortlisted IPL venues: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
“With the rise in popularity of women’s cricket in the country mainly due to prominent performances by the Indian Senior Cricket team on world stage by qualifying for semi-finals in 2018 T20 World Cup, finals in 2020 T20 World Cup, securing silver medal in recently held 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham, we intend to conduct the Women’s IPL on similar lines with the Indian Premier League,” the BCCI said in its paper on WIPL.
