ICC chairman Greg Barclay has lauded the Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023) tournament and called it a great upliftment for women’s cricket. The WPL 2023 began in March this year and has been a great success with the two venues going houseful.
Barclay also lauded BCCI secretary Jay Shah for his efforts in bringing the Women’s Premier League to life and giving the Indian women cricketers a platform to showcase their talent along the lines of what the Indian Premier League (IPL) did for the men’s game.
“It’s been great to be here in Mumbai for the launch of the Woman’s Premier League. If you recognize the powerhouse that India is in terms of pregnant, it’s appropriate that they’ve launched the Woman’s Premier League. I know that Jay Shah on and his board and his team are really committed to making this one of the biggest and the best tournaments that it can possibly be. And I’m sure that they will be successful in that respect. I’m really pleased and very appreciative that this has happened,” Barclay was seen saying in a video shared by BCCI.
“As I say, I think it’ll be a great uplift for the women’s game and I’m looking forward to seeing how this tournament plays out. I take my hat off to Jay and again, his team at the BCCI. For the way they’ve approached this, there’s no reason for the two parts of the game, men and women, to be viewed as different. This is people playing cricket and dance. They should be treated equally,” he added.
The tournament features five teams- Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Giants, UP Warriorz, and Royal Challengers Bangalore and is being played at two venues at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
The Professionalism And The Remuneration That It’s Afforded The Players Is Important For The Women’s Game- Greg Barclay On WPL
Meg Lanning is captaining the Delhi Capitals, Alyssa Healy is leading the UP Warriorz, Harmanpreet Kaur helms the Mumbai Indians, Smriti Mandhana captains the Royal Challengers Bangalore and finally, Sneh Rana leads the Gujarat Giants after Beth Mooney was injured and ruled out of the WPL 2023.
Meanwhile, Barclay attended a match of the WPL 2023 and was impressed by Jay Shah and his team for giving the tournament so much professionalism and remuneration and the whole arrangement looked amazing.
He said: “The professionalism and the remuneration that it’s afforded the players, and I think that’s something that’s going to be really important again for the women’s game. I was at the game last night. It is exactly what I would have expected out of an Indian run competition. Absolutely amazing. So I look to Jay and his team. I think they’re doing a wonderful job in leading the way in terms of getting the Mormons game to where it needs to be.”
The Eliminator of the WPL 2023 will be played on March 24 between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz at the DY Patil Stadium and the winner of this encounter will face Delhi Capitals in the final at the Brabourne Stadium on March 26.
In conversation with ICC chairman, Mr. Greg Barclay
“He spoke about the tremendous effort the team at the BCCI have put in to making #TATAWPL a grand success!”@JayShah | #TataWPL2023 pic.twitter.com/duX9KWe2mF
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 24, 2023