The much-anticipated Women’s Premier League is about to kick off on March 4th. The entire Indian cricket fraternity is hyped for the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League. Rachael Haynes, head coach of Gujarat Giants, feels women’s cricket will benefit a lot due to the WPL. She says, “There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL, and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”
ICC General Manager Cricket, Wasim Khan, seconded Haynes’ opinion. In a press conference, he said, “India continues to lead the way with regard to women’s cricket. The values brought in for the WPL teams reiterate the potential of women’s cricket.”
The first-ever WPL will run from March 4th to 26th and will be conducted entirely in Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium and Brabourne Stadium. The WPL is a landmark event for women’s cricket, and five high-profile teams will be a part of it; Adani Group-owned Gujarat Giants, Reliance Industries-owned Mumbai Indians, Diageo-owned Royal Challengers Bangalore, JSW-GMR-owned Delhi Capitals, and Capri-Global owned UP Warriorz.
These five teams will play a total of 22 matches during the 23-day tournament. The first match will be between Beth Mooney-led Gujarat Giants and Harmanpreet Kaur-led Mumbai Indians on 4th March at 7:30 PM in Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.
Check out the entire schedule of the first Women’s Premier League.
When is the Women’s Premier League starting?
The 2023 Women’s Premier League starts on March 4th and will end on March 26th. All the matches will be played at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium and Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium.
How many teams will be in the Women’s Premier League?
The first edition of the WPL will stage a total of 20 league matches between 5 franchises (Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, and UP Warriorz). A total of two play-off matches will also take place and will be played over 23 days.
Where can you watch the Women’s Premier League live?
The TATA Women’s Premier League will be live-streamed on Jio Cinema. For television users in India, the women’s league will be telecasted on the Sports18 channel. For users who reside outside India, they can watch the league on the following channels:
| Location | Broadcaster |
| United Kingdom | Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Main Event |
| United States | Willow TV |
| Australia | Fox Sports, Yupp TV |
| Middle East | Willow TV |
| South Africa | SuperSport |
| New Zealand | Sky Sport NZ (Sky Sport 2) |
| Caribbean | Flow Sports (Flow Sports 2) |
| Canada | Willow TV |
| Bangladesh | Channel 9 |
| Afghanistan | Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) |
| Nepal | Yupp TV, Net TV Nepal, SimTV Nepal |
| Sri Lanka | Yupp TV, SLRC, Dialog TV, PeoTV |
| Singapore | StarHub TV+ |
| Maldives | Yupp TV, Medianet |
There’s no doubt that the WPL will make India a superpower in women’s cricket. But will it act as a catalyst to improve the level of cricket the Women in Blue play?
