Women’s IPL set to debut in March next year, says BCCI
INDIA is set to inaugurate a fiveteam women’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) next year to run ahead of the moneyspinning men’s Twenty20 tournament, media reports said.
The new competition will be formalised when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) meets later this week, local media reports said.
It is tentatively set for March to fit between the next T20 Women’s World Cup in South Africa and
the start of the new IPL season.
“We intend to conduct the Women’s IPL on similar lines as the Indian Premier League,” the board reportedly said in a letter to state cricket associations.
Media outlets said the letter outlined a proposal for a season of 22 games that restricted overseas players to six per team, with five allowed in the playing XI.
Franchises for five teams will be sold by the BCCI, but a final decision on how they would be allocated and where they will play remained unclear.
“Delighted to see that the #WIPL is on its way,” Indian cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted. “This is the beginning of something big and we must all support it.”
The board did not respond to requests for comment.
India’s women cricketers have shone in recent years despite being overshadowed by the wildly popular IPL and the exploits of Rohit Sharma’s side.
The international team made the finals of the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020 and won silver at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Former captain Mithali Raj, the world’s leading women’s ODI run-scorer, retired from all international formats this year shortly before the release of a Bollywood biopic recounting her 23-year career.
The IPL is a huge earner for Indian cricket. The tournament made more than $11 billion (£9.78bn) for the Indian economy each year, according to prepandemic estimates.