The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is set to launch a maiden women’s Bangladesh Premier League (WBPL) is likely to be held soon after the ongoing men’s BPL 2025 which ends on February 07.
According to Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, the BCB director, the tournament will be a three-team competition, with each team playing the others twice for a total of six league games before the final.
“The board has been thinking about the various ways that we can take women’s cricket forward,” Fahim said. “Whether we can do a T20 competition for women was in our thoughts. We have decided today that we will do the Women’s BPL.”
Fahim said that the BCB is in talks with some of the men’s BPL franchise regarding ownership of the women’s teams and that a couple of owners have shown interest.
WBPL to clash with WPL 👀
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have announced the launch of the Women’s Bangladesh Premier League 😎
Read more 👇 https://t.co/v1vPMmiwZF
— Cricket.com (@weRcricket) January 17, 2025
“We have already spoken to a few BPL franchises, who have shown interest [in owning women’s teams],” he said. “We want to see how a women’s tournament has an effect on our T20 cricket. We are hopeful that it will help our women’s game progress.”
Fahim also revealed that only one overseas player will be allowed in the playing 11, with the squads having a maximum of 15 players each.
“We won’t take many overseas players due to the financial constraints,” he said. “Four overseas players puts financial pressure on the teams; perhaps they don’t want to take that pressure. We want to give more opportunities to our domestic cricketers. We want to add competitiveness.”
The Women’s BPL will be the first T20 league to be held in Bangladesh. Women cricketers in the country play one-day league in Dhaka, and the BCB recently launched a women’s three-day competition.
All the matches are scheduled to be held in Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
Nazmul also assured that the WBPL would avoid the financial and logistical challenges currently plaguing the men’s BPL such as unpaid salaries.
“We’re committed to addressing technical and financial issues meticulously. These problems won’t affect the women’s BPL. There were doubts about whether we could successfully organize this BPL.”
“Many franchises left during transitions, and we took a risk. While some areas didn’t go as planned, we aim to resolve those issues moving forward,” said member secretary of BPL governing Council, Nazmul.
