Picture Credit: Twitter/BCCI
The Women’s Indian Premier League has been garnering a lot of steam since its announcement by the former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly in September 2022. There has been a lot of speculation about the possible teams in the tournament and a coach of an Indian Premier League franchise has dropped a big hint on the topic.
The director of cricket for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mike Hesson, on his Instagram account, posted an interesting story from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium where scouts of the team were observing the Senior Women's T20 Trophy between Tripura and Himachal Pradesh. In the story, Hesson addressed how the team scouts are closely watch in the marquee women’s domestic tournament.
Going back to the announcement made by Ganguly informed the state associations that BCCI has scheduled Women’s IPL (WIPL) early next year. Ganguly wrote, “The BCCI is currently working in the much-awaited women’s IPL. We are expecting to start the first season early next year.”
The long-awaited women's IPL will comprise of five teams and will start immediately after the Women's T20 World Cup ends in South Africa on February 26. The BCCI is hoping to have a total of 22 matches, with each squad comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. In any game, only five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four players being from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.
Every team will face each other twice during the league phase with the league leader entering the finals. The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator between the second and third-ranked teams after the league stage. The BCCI hasn’t announced the WIPL schedule, but it will end before the men's IPL begins, which will start at the end of March 2023.
Besides the Women's IPL, the BCCI is also launching a girl's Under-15 ODI tournament. Talking about this tournament, the former India captain said, “We are glad to introduce a girls U15 One Day tournament from this season. Women's cricket has seen phenomenal growth across the world and our national team has been performing well.”