Reports: Women's IPL to have 5 teams, 20 league fixtures, 2 venues for inaugural edition

A much-awaited update on the Women’s IPL has come through and the inaugural edition is set to be played next year after the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. According to the reports now, BCCI is planning to have five teams for the inaugural season. Each team might get to play each other twice in the league stages with the top side qualifying for the finals directly. An eliminator might be in place for the second and third ranked team to qualify for the finals.  

Also, each team will have the luxury to field five overseas players in the playing XI with four of them coming from the ICC full member nations and one from the associate nation. This is an excellent gesture to provide exposure to the associate nation players. The men’s IPL usually has had four overseas players in the playing XI with no restrictions on the full member nations or associates.  

Coming to the five teams, BCCI is still pondering over having two options with Zone wise - North (Dharamsala/Jammu), South (Kochi/Vizag), Central (Indore/Nagpur/Raipur), East (Ranchi/Cuttack), North East (Guwahati) and West (Pune/Rajkot) - with matches held at non-IPL venues) and existing city-wise like with Men's IPL (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata - with matches held at IPL venues) according to Cricbuzz reports.  

Two venues to host inaugural edition of Women's IPL 

The BCCI office bearers are yet to conclude on the teams and the final topic of discussion has been on the venues for the tournament. While the men’s IPL 2023 is set to resume with the home and away games, the same could not be expected in Women’s IPL. The first half of the tournament is likely to take place in one venue and the second half will be shifted to another venue completely.  

The 2023 season could be played in two of the five team’s venues while the 2024 season could be played in two of the remaining venues. The remaining one venue and one of the 2023 season venues will host the 2025 season and this is expected to be the blueprint for the format going forward.