Women’s Premier League Inaugural

Women’s Premier League, WPL 2023
The WPL 2023 season will be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. The inaugural session of the Women’s Premier League began on Saturday, 4 March 2023 with a match between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.

This season, five teams Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and UP Warriors will face each other in a 23 days cricketing league. 

A round this time last year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed its plans to host an IPL-style tournament for women by 2023. Aware of the presence of a huge market for women’s cricket in the Indian subcontinent, the then president and secretary of the board – Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah – expressed their interest in starting the league at the earliest.

The demand for it grew louder with success on the field of play – the national women’s team won the Asia Cup, finished as runner-up in the Commonwealth Games, and won the ODI series in England.

The BCCI had the intent, but no one knew exactly when the much-anticipated league would kick off. The market was widely researched and informal discussions were held with existing IPL franchises and a few other corporations to make sure that the best decision is taken. But even then, not many though that the league would start as early as 2023.

The BCCI had planned a grand opening ceremony for the same that will be attended by famous Indian celebrities. On March 4, the opening ceremony saw legendary singer Shankar Mahadevan unveil the WPL anthem, which was composed by him.

There was overwhelming crowd support during the recent white-ball series in Mumbai between India and Australia, and the BCCI is optimistic that crowd support will only grow from hereon. There are plans to have free tickets – although it’s not finalised yet – and other arrangements to make the league a success. The confidence that the WPL would be a valuable addition to the global cricket ecosystem also stems from other examples: a few years ago, when the WBBL and The Hundred got underway, not many were sure of their impact, but both tournaments have by now carved a niche for themselves.