PCB Postponed Women’s T20 League Till September 2023
Pakistan Cricket Board under the previous management of Ramiz Raja was very eager to get started with the Women’s T20 league alongside PSL 2023 to groom and provide more exposure to the women cricketers in the circuit. But with the new Chairman and his team now decided to postpone the Women’s T20 League to September 2023 because of the clash with the Women’s IPL which is expected to be played from the 3rd of March this year and already became the 2nd most expensive league in the circuit after IPL 2023.
Women’s T20 League Future
There was a detailed discussion held in the PSL governing meeting council that the Women’s T20 league cannot be played in March for right now and they will continue to monitor and expand the pool of women’s cricketers first in order for the franchises to have more options to select players. In the meeting, it was decided that the inaugural edition of the Women’s T20 league to be played in September and it will be a standalone tournament with four franchises competing against each other to win the trophy. The name of the tournament might also be changed and it will be played on 2 venues rather than just one as initially proposed by previous management under Ramiz Raja.
Pakistan Women’s Cricketers Pool
A very big challenge that PCB faces before organizing a Women’s T20 League in the circuit with foreign players is they do not have a very large pool of women cricketers available. Currently, they only have 30-35 cricketers at the senior level, and out of which only 12 women’s players are centrally contracted. To hold a franchise-based competition, PCB would ideally want 28 more players to be added to this current women’s cricketers pool.
To increase the player pool, PCB is doing trials in different parts of the country to find out young amazing women cricketers who can serve Pakistan for longer periods. Lahore Qalandars, a PSL franchise also expanded their Player Development Programme for Women’s Cricket which can also help PCB a great deal in having a well-groomed set of female cricketers. Qalandars have already provided top cricketers like Haris Rauf to the Men’s cricket team from their very own development program which shows it is one of the best in the country. Currently, they got a pool of young 20 women cricketers at their high-performance center who are getting their skills groomed as well as proper fitness training from highly qualified coaches and trainers available at the center.
Public Tender For Women’s T20 League
PCB will be announcing a public tender document to build the Women’s T20 League from the ground up for media and franchise rights just like BCCI did for their very own Women’s IPL which is setting up high benchmarks for other cricket-playing nations to follow. PCB doesn’t have big investors and resources like BCCI but they will hope to get reasonable broadcast and franchise fees income once they officially introduce the league in coming September.
