With the announcement of the inaugural Women’s IPL slated to happen reportedly from 3rd March to 26th March, everyone is looking forward to the mega-event that has the potential to change the destiny of women’s cricket in India and globally.
With the time ticking on the BCCI to share more details about the Women’s IPL, reports are rife suggesting that Maharashtra could be a frontrunner to conduct the league. This is with the intention to ease out any logistical challenges and conduct the tournament smoothly. Although the decision is yet to be finalized and sealed, there are sources in the IPL Governing Council who shared with Sportstar about the possibility of having Maharashtra as the venue for the Women’s IPL matches.
This is not yet finalized but the governing council is considering the option.
Would this be the right decision? 🤔#CricketTwitter | Source: Sportstar pic.twitter.com/mRx20SN9eX
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 22, 2022
In the recently concluded India versus Australia series as well, the matches happened in the DY Patil Stadium and the Brabourne Stadium respectively and a pleasant sight was seeing fans throng the stadiums in massive numbers and the turnouts to vehemently back India and women’s cricket at large was overwhelming and delightful. The support for women’s cricket in recent times has been phenomenal, to say the least, and BCCI would certainly be assured that hosting the Women’s IPL in a place like this is a step in the right direction. The BCCI did want to experiment with either conducting the matches at non-men’s IPL centres or hosting them in the men’s IPL centres and eventually decided that Mumbai will be an ideal venue based on the trend of good support and interest in Mumbai and is seriously considering it. With the men’s IPL only set to begin in April, there will not be any logistical concerns. Perhaps a decision on the same will be made shortly after the mini IPL auction for the men’s IPL concludes on Friday, 23rd December 2022.
It is also being speculated that the three major venues in Maharashtra, specifically in Mumbai, there is the renowned Wankhede Stadium, the Brabourne Stadium and the DY Patil Stadium with excellent facilities are being taken into consideration. Besides Mumbai, in Pune, there is the MCA Stadium in Gahunje which are venues where top-flight matches have happened seamlessly in the past as well. The reason to have all the matches in and around Maharashtra is to ease the travel for the teams.
Looking at the men’s IPL 2022 earlier this year which was conducted entirely in Mumbai and Pune without any hassles, the BCCI seems to be convinced that this is the way to go and has also begun talks with the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to confirm if the Women’s IPL can be conducted there.
I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.