BCCI plans to start Women’s IPL next year

The BCCI is planning to start a full-fledged Women’s Indian Premier League by 2023, said Board president Sourav Ganguly on Friday.

Meanwhile, four exhibition matches will make a return after a one-year gap and will be hosted when the Men’s IPL play-offs are on. The BCCI, which has been criticised for not holding the Women’s IPL, will need the AGM’s approval to kick-start the League.

A total of five or six teams are expected to be part of the inaugural edition. The existing 10 Men’s IPL franchises will be given the first right of refusal to buy teams in the Women’s League. “It (the Women’s IPL) has to be approved by the AGM. We plan to start it by next year,” Ganguly said after the IPL Governing Council meeting here on Friday.

The women’s exhibition matches, which were last held in 2020 in the UAE, are likely to be hosted at the MCA Stadium in Pune in the end of May.