Women’s T20 Challenge Will Happen During IPL Playoffs: BCCI President Sourav Ganguly

The Women's T20 Challenge consists of three teams - Supernovas, Trailblazers, Velocity - playing two league matches each followed by a Final. In 2020, IPL Trailblazers, led by Smriti Mandhana won.

Smriti Mandhana along with other Trailblazers players in 2019 | (File Photo/ Getty Images)

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that the Women's T20 Challenge will be taking place this year as well. The T20 tournament will coincide with the Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs, he said.

"The Women’s T20 Challenge will again be back this year in the month of May," Ganguly told Sportstar. 

The Women's T20 Challenge is a three-team mini-tournament that was started by the BCCI in 2018 to promote women's franchise cricket. Since then, it happened thrice with the Eliminator and Qualifier matches of IPL. The 2021 edition of the tournament was suspended due to the rising cases of Covid-19. 

"We will host the IPL and hopefully in the future we will be able to host a bigger women’s IPL once the number of women players go up. We will take it from there," Ganguly said.

"But this year, too, the Women’s T20 Challenge will happen during the IPL playoffs," he added.

The tournament consists of three teams - Supernovas, Trailblazers, Velocity - playing two league matches each followed by a Final. In 2020, IPL Trailblazers, led by Smriti Mandhana won the Women's T20 Challenge. Although, the tournament started as a one-off match affair. Later in 2019, it expanded to become a four-match event. 

The BCCI President also spoke about upcoming India vs West Indies ODI and T20I series. He said, "It (1000th ODI) is a big moment for Indian cricket, but unfortunately, the match will be played without a crowd. The series, too, will be played in empty stadiums. It could have been done in a much better way had there been no COVID-19, but you cannot help it."