Women’s IPL hits the stands in March 2023 | Latest News India

From an experimental match in 2018, followed by a four-match symbolic exercise called the Women’s T20 Challenge from 2019 onwards, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is finally ready to launch a comprehensive T20 league for women amid rising demands.

Buoyed by the growing market for women’s cricket in India and the national team’s improving performance – they finished finalists in the 2017 ODI World Cup and at the 2020 T20 World Cup – the Women’s IPL (WIPL), 22-matches long and involving five teams, is set to take place for the first time in March 2023.

“There is an overall increase of 111% in participation of players along various categories in last eight years. In women’s senior category, there is rise of 129% while in U-19 category it increased by 92%,” an internal BCCI note to its state bodies read, justifying the decision.

The tournament will have franchises, mascots, foreign players, and even an eliminator if the format under consideration is approved.

The decision got a big thumbs-up from women cricketers, past and present.

“It’s a momentous occasion. We all knew it was going to happen. Now that there is a formal announcement by the BCCI, all speculation is put to rest,” said former India skipper Mithali Raj.

“As a member of the women’s cricket fraternity, I express my gratitude to the BCCI and hope WIPL will do wonders for women’s cricket and also create a great talent pool for the national team just like the men’s IPL did for the men’s team,” she added.

VENUES Though the details of the event as still being finalised, one of the proposals being considered involves staging the tournament in a zonal structure at non-IPL venues. In such a scenario, officials aware of the matter said, the teams will be divided in six catchment areas – North, East, West, South, Central and North-East, similar to the Duleep trophy — for five teams. Dharmshala or Jammu for North, Ranchi or Cuttack for East, Pune or Rajkot for West, Kochi or Visakhapatnam for South, Indore, Nagpur or Raipur for Central, and Guwahati for North-East have been shortlisted as the venues for each zone.

Several state bodies have been asking the BCCI for match allocation outside the primary home base of the IPL franchises. And if the new IPL Governing Council that takes charge next week, passes this proposal, women’s IPL could serve the purpose in helping spread the reach of the league, the officials added.

However, if a second, more conventional, city-based proposal is accepted, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata will be the shortlisted host cities for the six zones.

FORMATWhile the Women’s T20 Challenge involved only four matches played annually, the plan for WIPL is to have 20 league matches with each team playing the other twice during the season. The team finishing at top of the table after the league matches will directly go into the final, while the team finishing second and third will play the eliminator, with the winner of that match qualifying for the final.

The league is expected to begin prior to the start of IPL 2023, and after the women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa which will end on February 26.

But, unlike the IPL, the tournament may be played in a “cluster-caravan” format.

“It will be a challenge to play in home-away format in WIPL, as with five to six teams it is not possible to have a match every day,” the BCCI note cited above said. “It is suggested that tournament can be played in caravan style, where after finishing 10 matches at one venue, the next 10 matches are played at next venue. Therefore, 10 matches each to be played across two venues in 2023 WIPL season, 10 each in the next two venues in 2024 season, and for 2025 season 10 matches in remaining one venue, and remaining 10 in one of the venues from 2023 season.”

While the IPL has been the pioneering franchise cricket competition in the world, for women’s cricket the women’s Big Bash in Australia and the Kia Super League (rebranded to The Hundred) in England took the lead when they were launched in 2016.

However, those have limited overseas player presence in the playing XI to three. In WIPL’s case, the proposal is for to have five overseas players — one of them from an associate member nation — in the XI.

BIDDING FOR TEAMSBCCI is expected begin the process of selling the five teams by inviting private investors to make bids. Other than existing IPL owners, other private investors are known to be interested, and the modalities are still being worked out.

“More details of how this the bidding for franchises will work will be released shortly,” a second official said.

The Indian board will also sell media rights for the property separately, he added.