BCCI mulling five-team Women's IPL, inaugural season to kick off in March 2023

BCCI is set to host the inaugural edition of the Women's IPL in early 2023. While the itinerary is being readied, it is believed that the first-ever season will kick off in India in March next year, soon after the conclusion of the T20 Women's World Cup and right before the men's IPL. For quite some time, the Women's IPL has been long awaited and the historic tournament is set to get underway next year.

As per a report in Cricbuzz, BCCI is considering a five-team Women's IPL. Unlike in the men's competition, each team will reportedly field as many as five overseas players. Out of the five, four must be fromICC Full Member Nations whereas the remaining one has to be from an Associate Nation.

In addition, BCCI is in talks between two options for selling the IPL franchises: zone wise-North (Dharamsala/Jammu), South (Kochi/Vizag), Central (Indore/Nagpur/Raipur), East (Ranchi/Cuttack), North East (Guwahati) and West (Pune/Rajkot)-with matches to take place at non-IPL venues or existing city-wise as is the case with the men's IPL (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata-with matches held at IPL venues). Nonetheless, nothing is final in this regard and a final decision will be taken by the IPL chairperson (with the BCCI's current treasurer Arun Dhumal set to take over the post)and the board office bearers in due course of time.

As per reports, a caravan-style itinerary is also being considered for the inaugural edition of the Women's IPL. It means one could see a bunch of matches taking place at a venue before the entire competition will shift to a different venue. IPL 2021 was staged in a similar format, which saw matches being held in Mumbai and Chennai first before the tournament shifted to Delhi and Ahmedabad (prior to the second wave of the Covid-19 virus postponing the tournament and later shiftingit entirely to the UAE, in late 2021).

Talking about the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian eves, they have been on a roll in 2022. After missing out on a semi-final spot in the 2022 Women's World Cup by a whisker, India won a silver medal at the CWG'2022 edition and have now booked a place in the Asia Cup, beating Thailand by 74 runs in the first semi-final on Thursday (October 13). They will now face Sri Lanka in the final, on Saturday (October 15).