Women's IPL set to be launched by BCCI in 2023
Women's IPL has long been called for since the last decade. In 2023, the BCCI is set to launch the premier women's franchise T20 tournament. It is likely to be a five-team event.
FollowThe long-awaited wait for women cricketers across the globe is all set to end in 2023. Next year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will launch the highly-awaited Women's Indian Premier League (IPL). As per reports, it is likely to be a five-team tournament and will commence right after the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 on February 26. As per the proposed plan by the BCCI, it would consist of 22 matches, while the strength of each franchise would be 18 players, with a maximum of six foreign players, whereas the playing XI cannot consist of more than five overseas players.
The proposed plan was sent to the state associations by the BCCI on Thursday. As per ESPNCricinfo, every side plays each other twice in the league stage, with the table-topper heading to the final right away. The second and third-ranked sides would contest an Eliminator, with the winner competing in the final. The tournament length is yet to be finalised by the BCCI, but it will be wrapped up before the Men's IPL in March 2023.
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"It will be challenging to play the WIPL in the home and away format because it is impossible to have a match every day with five to six teams. It is suggested that the tournament be played in caravan style, where after ten matches at one venue, the next ten matches are to be played at the next venue," read BCCI's text to the state associations ahead of its general meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
"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," BCCI's text added.
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Team structure
Unlike the Men's IPL, the BCCI would be selling the teams in Women's IPL. There are two plans for the same:
1. A set of a couple of cities in each zone: Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South) and Guwahati (North-East).
2. A franchise being sold without any designated home base, while matches would be played in six shortlisted venues, i.e. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
The final decision regarding the Women's IPL and team structure would be taken during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday.
