Women's IPL to commence on March 7; selectors set to submit a list of over 200 players

The Women's Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held in a 15-day window in March, after receiving official approval at the BCCI's AGM in October. Following repeated delays and insubstantial allegations, the Women's IPL received ultimate permission from the general body, and the edition will be followed by a media rights auction and a franchisee auction.

As per a report by Cricbuzz, the Women's IPL 2023 would most likely be hosted from March 7 to 22. According to the source, there would be a five-team tournament for which a list of 160-170 Indian players and 30-40 foreign players will be presented. Following the latest meeting of the IPL governing Council, the BCCI asked the selectors to submit a list of players, and it is reported that over 200 names will be provided for the same.

Last month, the new IPL chairman, Arun Dhumal, voiced his excitement about the new league, adding that the goal of the competition is to gain a new group of fans and inspire more and more ladies to take up the sport.

"Fans should make it to the stadium in large numbers whether we have the WIPL in rural areas or main city centres. We will evaluate that and take a call soon.
"We are working on making it one of the best women's cricket tournament in the world. What we did in the IPL, we want to do something similar with WIPL," Dhumal was quoted as saying by NDTV in November.

The Indian women's squad is currently training for a five-match T20I series against Australia, which will begin on December 9, 2022. The five games will be contested in the D.Y. Patil Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The series will be extremely useful to both teams as they prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

In the previous edition, India finished as runners-up in 2020. They met hosts Australia in the final after putting up outstanding performances during the league stage, but they were unable to win the title. Harmanpreet Kaur's team will be seeking to flip the tables this time after winning the Women's Asia Cup and a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022.

READ| World Test Championship final likely to take place at Lord's from June 7-11: Reports