In a historic news, Cricket West Indies on March 14 announced that a women’s Caribbean Premier League will be held for the first time alongside the men’s edition this summer. The women’s tournament will be organised in the month-long window announced for the men’s version of the event from August 30 to September 30.
The WCPL will be a three-team tournament, for now, featuring Trinbago Knight Riders, Barbados Royals and Guyana Amazon Warriors. It is not clear, however, as to what the design of the competition will be and which venues will be in play. Clarity around the same is expected in the coming weeks.
For now, women’s cricket fans in the Caribbean can rejoice over the idea of an inaugural WCPL, which had been in CWI’s pipeline for a while. The cricket board in the region had held two exhibition T10 matches for the best women’s cricketers in the Caribbean ahead of the 2019 final. Back then, while announcing those games, CWI had said the board hopes that this short event would pave the way for a sustainable women’s league in future.
“Increasing the opportunities for West Indian women and girls to get involved in cricket is one of CWI’s strategic priorities, and we are delighted that we have been able to partner with CPL to further the expansion plans that we had first unveiled in 2019 prior to the arrival of the Covid Pandemic.
We are confident that all CPL women’s games will be highly competitive and will add quality entertainment to our fans in the region and around the world,”
CWI president Ricky Skerritt said in a media release.
The WCPL is the latest T20 league announced in the women’s version after England’s KIA Super League, which has been taken over by The Hundred, Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League and the Women’s Super Smash in New Zealand.
The only difference, however, is the significantly lesser number of teams taking part in the respective tournament. The men’s version of the CPL features six franchise-owned teams all based in different Islands.
It is hoped that the WCPL will gradually leap towards expansion in the years to follow as CWI seems keen to enable the rise of the women’s game in the Caribbean and subsequently, the West Indies women’s team that has had a remarkable start to the ongoing ICC World Cup with wins over New Zealand and England.
Indications are that the next such full-fledged women’s T20 league will be conducted in Pakistan, a remarkable news considering the country’s deep-rooted conservatism around women’s involvement in sports on religious grounds. Things are changing for the better and Pakistan Cricket Board seems very keen to take the momentum forward with a women’s Super League in the country.
A timeframe and other details of the tournament are not yet out, but PCB chairman Ramiz Raza said his regime is hoping to launch a WPSL next year and aid the overall growth of the women’s game in the country, while also changing societal perceptions about Pakistan.
There have been calls for a women’s IPL in India for a long time as well, and the Sourav Ganguly led BCCI regime seems to have finally decided to act upon those. In a recent interview, the chairman had said a WIPL could be launched in 2023.
The suggestions to introduce a WIPL have been rife since as far back as 2017 when the Indian women’s team made the final of the World Cup at Lord’s but narrowly missed out on the trophy against England. In this period, BCCI has conducted three editions of the Women’s T20 exhibition tournament but has not gone on to announce a full-fledge WIPL yet.
