Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced Jio as the title sponsor for the Women’s T20 Challenge 2020 set to start from November 4 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The competition with being held alongside the playoffs of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
Apart from Jio, Reliance Foundation Education and Sports For All (RF ESA) is also the supporters. Notably, this is for the first time that a sponsor has signed with BCCI exclusively for the women’s matches.
Women’s T20 Challenge will inspire more young girls: Sourav Ganguly
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly expressed that he hopes that the Women’s T20 Challenge inspires young girls to take up the game as a profession.
“As BCCI grows the game of cricket across all formats, one key area of focus has been to grow the women’s game. We hope the Jio Women’s T20 Challenge will inspire more young girls to take up the sport and give parents the confidence that playing cricket is a great career opportunity for their daughters.
“We look forward to seeing the great women’s sports stories that will be shared as a result of this initiative. We want to support and create concrete ways to grow the pipeline of women talent in Cricket.
Our goal with the Women’s T20 Challenge is to build a pathway to a dedicated Women’s’ IPL. Signing an exclusive Title Sponsor for the Women’s T20 Challenge, is a great testament to the property, allowing it to be self-sustainable. We believe Jio and RF ESA as Title Sponsors will be strong partners for the Women’s T20 Challenge,” Jay Shah said.
Three teams- Supernovas, Trailblazers and Velocity will participate in the four-match tournament. Mithali Raj will be leading Velocity while Trailblazers and Supernova will be headed by Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur respectively. The defending champion of the last season are Supernova.