In a move to spread the game across the country, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to host the Women’s Premier League across four venues – Mumbai, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Vadodara – from the first week of February.
“It will be played across four venues. The Mumbai leg will be played at Brabourne Stadium,” BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla told Sportstar.
Earlier, the Board had shortlisted only Lucknow and Vadodara as the venues, but in a Governing Council meeting on Sunday, it was deliberated that the tournament should be played across multiple venues and keeping the strong fanbase in mind, Mumbai and Bengaluru was also included in the plans.
Stadiums were packed the last time both the venues hosted the tournament and keeping the popularity of the game in mind in those two centres, it was decided that the tournament will begin in Mumbai, before the caravan moves to Lucknow and Bengaluru. The newly-built Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara, will host the final, scheduled to be held in March.
The Kotambi Stadium, which is 20 kilometres away from Vadodara city, recently hosted its maiden international fixture with India women’s team featuring in a three-match ODI series against the West Indies. It is currently hosting the knockout stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Interestingly, Mumbai has always been a perfect venue for India’s women’s team as most of its fixtures have had capacity crowd, across Brabourne Stadium, Wankhede Stadium and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
And, keeping that in mind, the inaugural game will be played in Mumbai. In 2023, the city hosted the entire tournament, while Bengaluru and Delhi hosted it last year.