The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the launch of the highly-awaited, Women’s T20 league, that’ll have its inaugural edition run alongside next year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL).
The tournament is scheduled to get underway early next year in March and will have its final played on the 18th of March, 2023, a day before the Pakistan Super League final. The 4-team tournament will see a side with an 18-player pool that includes 6 overseas players and all of its 12 games will be played in Rawalpindi.
PCB Chairman, Mr Ramiz Raja, in a statement, said, “I am delighted to announce the women’s league. This league will attract young women cricketers to this great sport and help our current players further enhance their skills when they will get to share dug-outs with the overseas players. To amplify the coverage and promotion of this initiative, some of the matches will precede the HBL Pakistan Super League 8 (PSL|8) matches.
This event is aligned to our strategy of making Pakistan a stronger cricket-playing nation across all formats and genders. We are not only creating attractive brands to strengthen our cricket economy, but through this tournament are also providing career opportunities to our women cricketers. The more our women cricketers will participate in high-pressure events, the more they will learn. The PCB is a strong proponent of empowering women to shine brighter. By engaging our women, which form 49 per cent of the country’s population, we will enhance the economic and social prosperity of our country.”
Mr Ramiz Raja was appointed as the chairman of the PCB on the 13th of September, 2021 and right from day 1 in office, he’s been on the front foot with respect to growing and opening opportunities for women in Pakistan. Women’s Pakistan Super League (W-PSL) or a franchise-based tournament and a U-19 tournament were on his bucket list.
In a landmark development, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) presented the country’s first-ever franchise cricket league for women cricketers.
The Women’s League will take place from March 3 to 18, 2023, in Rawalpindi, alongside the 8th edition of (PSL).#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/3ibEGVlUkx
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 7, 2022
In a statement, late last year (2021), Ramiz Raja after a meeting with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tom Harrison, in Pakistan, said, “We talked about [improving the] pathways to professional cricket. In October next year, we’ll launch an U19 PSL. This is very exciting because it’s never happened anywhere else. England will send their U19 players, who we’ll look after. I also have the women’s PSL in my mind. We’ll become the first cricket board in Asia to launch that.”
Efforts from the PCB had them successfully run the inaugural edition of the Women’s Under-19 T20 tournament which was a 6-team tournament played from the 13th to the 22nd of August, 2022 at the Lahore Country Club, Muridke and with that ticked on the bucket list, it now is time for the Women’s Pakistan Super League (W-PSL) in near future with the Women’s T20 League being a start.
The Broad of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been running a similar league named, ‘The Women’s T20 challenge’ since 2018 and in all likelihood, it is to be believed that a 6-team franchise-based ‘Women’s Indian Premier League’ (W-IPL) is scheduled to get underway, in March next year (2023). A clash in dates could well see the W-IPL and the women’s T20 league in Pakistan, run simultaneously which will potentially impact the overseas players.