- Mar 4, 2024
- Dec 9, 2023
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced 0n October 6, Thursday, that a Women’s T20 League will be held, and the first season will be played coinciding with the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season eight in 2023. All the games will be played at Rawalpindi which is 12 in total, and the final will be played on the 18th of March 2023, one day before the Pakistan Super League final.
The tournament will take place between four teams. Each team will have 18 players which will also include six overseas players. The final will take place as a separate match, and it will be between the top two sides. It will be held when the PSL takes place. The PSL is scheduled to be played from February 9 to March 19 in 2023.
“I am delighted to announce the women’s league,” PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said in a statement. “This league will attract young women cricketers to this great sport and help our current players further enhance their skills when they will get to share dug-outs with the overseas players. To amplify the coverage and promotion of this initiative, some of the matches will precede the HBL Pakistan Super League 8 matches.”
“This event is aligned to our strategy of making Pakistan a stronger cricket-playing nation across all formats and genders. We are not only creating attractive brands to strengthen our cricket economy but through this tournament are also providing career opportunities to our women cricketers. The more our women cricketers will participate in high-pressure events, the more they will learn.”
When Raja stepped in as the chairman of the PCB, one of his first and foremost objectives was to launch a T20 league for the Women cricketers in Pakistan which would be on the lines of the PSL. The league will mostly be held during January and February as Raja indicated earlier.
At that point, Pakistan only had 12 centrally contracted women’s cricketers and now the number has gone up to 20. Pakistan still needs a further 28 local players for the league, so they will have to dip into their reserves and hunt for more homegrown talent and they are likely to turn to players that featured in the national Under-19 tournament in August to bridge the gap.