Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) is set to start as a five-team tournament next year immediately after the conclusion of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on February 26.
As per ESPN Cric, the BCCI has proposed a total of 22 matches, with each squad comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. No more than five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.
Each team will play the others twice during the league phase (20 matches), with the league topper heading straight to the final. The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator between the second and third-ranked teams from the league phase.
The BCCI is yet to finalise the schedule of the WIPL, but it will be wrapped up before the men’s IPL begins, which is likely to be at the end of March.
A set of cities in each zone has been shortlisted and comprises: Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South) and Guwahati (North-East).
The second plan involves teams being sold but without a solid home base, with matches to be played at six shortlisted IPL venues: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.