Asia

Vadodara’s new BCA Stadium to launch 2025 Women’s Premier League

Featured image credit: Women’s Premier League

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the newly built BCA Stadium will open up the 2025 season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), which expands to take in four host cities.

The third edition of the world’s most lucrative women’s cricket franchise league will head to BCA Stadium’s home city of Vadodara, along with Bengaluru, Lucknow and Mumbai.

The T20 tournament will kick off on February 14 at BCA Stadium, where the Gujarat Giants (GG) will take on defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The 40,000-capacity stadium officially opened last month by hosting a three-game women’s one-day international series between India and the West Indies from December 22-27.

Vadodara will host a total of six matches before the action shifts to Bengaluru, where RCB will play its first home game against the Mumbai Indians (MI), champions of the inaugural WPL, at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on February 21.

Lucknow will make its debut as a WPL venue this season, with UP Warriorz (UPW) playing three matches at its home ground, Ekana Cricket Stadium, from March 3.

The final leg of the tournament will unfold in Mumbai, with the Cricket Club of India (CCI) hosting the last two league matches and the two playoff games at Brabourne Stadium, concluding with the final on March 15.

Continuing the format from the previous season, all matches in the third WPL will be single-headers. The 2024 WPL was held in Bengaluru and Delhi at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and Arun Jaitley Stadium, respectively.

The inaugural WPL took place solely in Mumbai, with matches played at Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium.