The Pakistan women’s T20 league, which was set to run alongside the PSL next month, will not go ahead as planned. The new PCB management committee, headed by Najam Sethi, decided to shelve the league, with the aim of holding it in September. The new league, which will have a different name, will be a standalone tournament with four teams.
The idea to launch the women’s T20 league was initiated by the previous chairman, Ramiz Raja. He was a big proponent of launching the leagues at the youth level and intended to commercialize women’s cricket by having a franchise-based league. However, with the change in PCB’s leadership, it was agreed in the PSL governing council meeting that the women’s league was unfeasible at this time of year. The PCB will, however, continue to explore avenues for the league.
One of the major challenges that the PCB will face is the formation of teams with adequate competitive players from the local pool. There are a handful of players on the Pakistan women’s circuit, with approximately 30-35 cricketers at the senior level. The domestic circuit for Pakistan women’s cricket has two tournaments: three teams each playing the National T20 and ODI Challenge Cups.
The PCB administration was initially reluctant to adopt this idea, citing a lack of resources. Instead, they wanted to invest more in the infrastructure to expand the pool of players across the country. But later with deliberation, it was agreed to have a separate tournament from the men’s PSL and across two venues.
One of the significant challenges that the PCB will face is the formation of teams with adequate competitive players from the local pool. There are a couple of players on the Pakistan women’s circuit, with around 30-35 cricketers at the senior level. The domestic circuit for Pakistan women’s cricket has two tournaments with three teams contesting the National T20 and ODI Challenge Cups.
Sethi had earlier scrapped the Pakistan Junior League (PJL), another of his predecessor Ramiz’s projects. As per new chairman, the U19 T20 league incurred significant losses in its first year, which rendered future uncertainty even more with the change of administration.
For the women’s league, Ramiz gave an idea to capitalize on the PSL’s production company and leverage their existence during the PSL to cover the women’s PSL, with the intention of saving a significant chunk of logistics and production costs. Nevertheless, all PSL franchises objected to using their funds to cover another tournament without any rebate or cost-sharing.
The new management is understood to be open to public tenders to build the league from scratch to make it a separate entity. PSL franchises have also expressed their interest to own the respective teams in the league.
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