Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 5: Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has spoken out regarding the idea of launching a women’s Indian Premier League. He stated that 2023 will be a great year to launch a full-fledged women’s league that will be as huge and successful as the men’s IPL.
Notably, the BCCI has been hosting the Women’s T20 Challenge, which featured three teams in a T20 event. Even though the BCCI staged the IPL in two halves in 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Women’s T20 Challenge was not held. Many Indian women cricketers, including Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana, have called for the women’s IPL to be introduced.
“We are at the level of formulation to have a full-fledged WIPL. It is certainly going to happen. I strongly believe that next year i.e. 2023 will be a very good time to start a full-fledged women’s IPL which will be as big and grand a success as the men’s IPL,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Cricket Australia runs a Women’s Big Bash League, while the England and Wales Cricket Board hosted the Women’s Hundred alongside the men’s competition in the inaugural edition earlier this year. In the Big Bash League in Australia in 2021, as many as eight Indian women’s players competed.
Women’s T20 Challenge to be held in May
The Women’s T20 Challenge would be conducted during the IPL 2022 playoffs in May, according to Ganguly. The dates and locations of the games will be determined later.
“The Women’s T20 Challenge will again be back this year in the month of May. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to host a bigger women’s IPL once the number of women players goes up. But this year, the Women’s T20 Challenge will happen during the IPL playoffs,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
