The fourth edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) could reportedly begin on January 7 with the final on February 3. According to Cricbuzz, the tournament will be held in two phases, with the first
leg in the Indian women’s team’s beloved DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, and the second at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.
The report said the dates haven’t been finalised and informed to the franchises, but the window is all but certain due to a couple of scheduling-related reasons. Firstly, the men’s T20 World Cup will kick off in early February, running for a month across venues in India and Sri Lanka.
Most cricket boards are also said to have broadly settled on January as the long-term window for the WPL, ensuring the tournament sits clear of other global leagues (particularly the Women’s Big Bash League) and avoids clashes with the ICC’s Future Tours Programme.
The report said the five franchises could be officially notified about the venues during the WPL auction in New Delhi on November 27.
The inaugural season in 2023 was held entirely in Mumbai, with matches divided between the Brabourne Stadium in the main city and the DY Patil Stadium. The following year, it was divided between the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Earlier this year, the latest season was divided across four venues — Vadodara, Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Mumbai.
Why does the Indian women’s team love the DY Patil Stadium?
Seeing the DY Patil Stadium as the venue for the first leg of the season would put smiles on several Indian women’s team members’ faces. The team won the Women’s World Cup final and the semi-final there, and according to skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, the team’s mood had changed when they got to know about the venue changing from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai.
“As soon as we came to know that our venue was the DY Patil Stadium, we all got so happy because we have always played good cricket here,” Harmanpreet said after the final. “And the biggest thing was that the crowd here is always good and they are very supportive. So, when the venue changed from Bangalore, we all started messaging in the group. We were manifesting. We said, ‘The final is going to be there, we won’t leave it now.’ As soon as we reached Mumbai, we said, ‘We’ve come home now, and we’ll start fresh.’ We didn’t want to look back at previous World Cups; we left them there. The new World Cup had just started.”
