Caribbean Premier League Women’s T20 on the cards

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL), are on talks of having women's leagues, according to Pete Russell, CPL Chief Operations Officer (COO). West Indies batter Britney Cooper, too made a request for the CPL to incorporate women in the CPL.

The West Indies, who were the defending champions coming into this World T20 were defeated by eventual champions Australia in the semi-final. With Australia and England having WBBL and KSL respectively and India having a huge domestic structure, the Windies women don't get to play the same amount of cricket as their fellow counterparts from top cricketing nations.

"We need people in the CPL or corporate sponsors to back us and give us that push. We can't do it all by ourselves...we need more. We need a mini-CPL," Cooper said.

Being the first stand-alone tournament, the World T20 became one of the most successful events of the year.

"We have already discussed the feasibility of a women’s tournament with Cricket West Indies (CWI) or a women’s exhibition match, after the 2017 tournament, and have been discussing how we can make it work since then. Any cricket tournament is a huge logistical challenge to arrange and there are a lot of questions that would need to be answered before we could commit to going ahead. But it is something that we are keen to have as part of the CPL programme, it is not question of ‘if’ it is a question of ‘when’," Russel told Newsday.

"Yes, we think this is a feasible option. We have seen with the Women’s Big Bash in Australia, the Super League in England and in the recently completed ICC Women’s World T20 that the women’s game is on the rise and needs to be taken very seriously. The quality of the women’s game has risen massively over the last few years and the Windies women’s team have been at the forefront of this. Having won the 2016 (T20) tournament and made the semi-final in this year’s event, the talent is clearly there for a fantastic women’s tournament in the region. But all decisions in this regard have to be discussed and agreed with our partners, CWI," he further added.

"CPL is blessed to have so many female fans and we would love to give the young girls, who follow our league, the chance to have role models and turn cricket into a feasible profession for young women in the Caribbean," he expressed.

"We see the CPL as having a part to play in growing the game across the region, but we would need the support of CWI and other key stakeholders to turn the idea of this league into a reality...We like to think that as a league we are seen as innovators and those who look to push the envelope. This is clearly a chance for us to look to expand our footprint, but more importantly it is the right time to develop the women’s game across the Caribbean," he said.

While talking about the investment, he said, "We don’t see it as a risk, but we have shown over the last six years that we are willing to invest in cricket across the region. It is very early days in these discussions and we have a lot of hoops to jump through before this becomes a reality, but we have seen over the last few weeks just how fast the women’s game is growing and we would love to be a part of its ongoing success."