BCCI AGM approves launch of Women's IPL

“The General Body approved to conduct the Women’s Indian Premier League,” said the press release with the key decisions from the governing body’s 91^st AGM.

There have been talks about the inception of the Women’s IPL for some time now and it was reported that the tournament will eventually come to fruition in 2023. Now that the decision has been made official, further details are awaited.

According to reports, the BCCI has already put the plans in place with the tournament set to take place in March 2023. It was further added that the state associations have been informed to prepare for the event right after the ICC T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa.

The tournament could be played with five or six teams with each team playing others twice in the group stages. If five teams are there, there will be a total of 22 matches including an eliminator and the grand final.

Each squad will be allowed to have 18 players and with a maximum limit of six overseas stars. The plan is to allow five overseas players in the playing XI with an Associate player filling in the fifth overseas slot.

BCCI has been conducting an exhibition tournament named Women’s T20 Challenge from 2018 as a precursor to the full-fledged league. It featured two teams in the inaugural edition before expanding to three teams in the next three events. Harmanpreet Kaur-led Supernovas won in the trophy thrice with Smriti Mandhan’s Trailblazers winning it once.

It remains to be seen how the team make ups will be. The teams that own franchises in men’s cricket are likely to be given first priority.

Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) is the first domestic T20 league that came into fruition way back in 2015-16 season and is currently in its eighth edition. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) started the Women’s Cricket Super League (WCSL) before it went defunct after four iterations. Since then England have revamped their domestic structure to start The Hundred.

Women’s Caribbean Premier League and 6IXTY were recently conducted by the West Indies Cricket Board where three existing franchises from men’s CPL fielded teams.

The annual meeting also approved the Senior Women’s Future Tour Programs for the 2022-2025 seasons.