On Wednesday, the BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the Women’s T20 Challenge will be held in May this year. Women’s T20 Challenge, which is also referred to as the Women’s IPL, commenced in 2018 and after being conducted successfully in 2018, 2019, and 2020, the tournament was called off in 2021, due to India’s tour of Australia during the same period.
Earlier, Pune was shortlisted as the venue but the Board decided to host the tournament at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
ven Brijesh Patel, the GC chairman, confirmed the development. “The process is on,” Patel said, adding that this year, a three-team women’s T20 Challenge will be held in Pune in May, during the playoffs.
While Board officials remained tight-lipped, it is understood that some of the stakeholders, who own IPL teams, are keen on being associated with the tournament. “We are looking at all the aspects, and a concrete plan will be finalized soon,” a Board insider said.
It is understood that teams who are part of the IPL are keen on buying teams for the league and sources indicated that “first choice will be given to existing franchises post which other parties to be invited” to bid for teams.
After India’s dream run in the ICC Women’s World T20, there were talks around having a full-fledged women’s IPL just like the men’s IPL. However, in an interview with SportStar, Ganguly stated that women’s IPL could be a thing for the future and this year there will only be the Women’s T20 Challenge, which has seen three teams participating.
The three teams that take part in the Women’s T20 Challenge are Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity. Supernovas led by Harmanpreet Kaur have won twice and Trailblazers led by Smriti Mandhana have won once. A total of 45 players participate in the tournament each year, including foreign players from West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Thailand. The latest edition was played in 2020 in the UAE and saw a total of four matches being played. Every team played two matches and the top two teams out of the three teams played the final.
