The inagurual edition of the Women’s Maharashtra Premier League has been postponed from June to September due to a packed cricket calendar.
The tournament was expected to kick start on June 24 at the MCA International Stadium in Gahunje. Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) will be the first association in the country to start a state league for women.
The franchise based tournament will feature players from international and national cricketers including Smriti Mandhana, Devika Vaidya, Anuja Patil, Kiran Navgire, and Shraddha Pokharkar.
“WMPL marks a significant milestone in promoting women’s cricket in Maharashtra. To ensure widespread coverage, the tournament will be broadcast live on JioCinema and Sports18, reaching cricket enthusiasts across India”, said Rohit Pawar, President of MCA and member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
He added, “Pune did not have its own IPL team due to which we could not organise IPL in our city having a well equipped international stadium but in future if the IPL increases the number of teams and if Pune’s industrialists take a team in the auction we will surely have our own IPL team.”
“Player participation is around 4500 in Maha Speed Star and the Regional training academy will help groom the players before the tournament. Around 4 teams will be playing for the tournament,” said Pawar
Speaking to The IE, Kalpana Tapikar, former cricket player and apex body member at MCA said: “WMPL will surely provide a platform for the female players, despite having a lot of potential, talent, and skills players underperform due to less exposure of national and international teams”.
Women’s Maharashtra Premier League winner will receive a prize money of INR 20 lakh while INR 10 lakh will be awarded for the runners-up.
Indian Women’s cricket team are currenly in Bangladesh to play the 5 match T20I series scheduled to be played between April 28 to May 9. India Women already sealed the series by winning first 4 T20Is while the last match will be played on May 9 in Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet.
