MM News

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hopes to launch a women’s version of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) T20 tournament ‘in near-future’, its chairman Ramiz Raja announced this week.

Raja made the comments in a video posted on Twitter, after meeting with ECB CEO Tom Harrison who visited to try and repair relations following the recriminations of England pulling out of a two-match T20I series last month.

In the video, the PCB Chairman said he wanted Pakistan to be the first country in Asia to have a women’s T20 league, while announcing that the board plans to launch an Under-19 men’s edition of the PSL.

“In October next year, we’ll launch an Under-19 PSL. This is very exciting because it’s never happened anywhere else,” he said, adding, “I also have the women’s PSL in my mind. We’ll become the first cricket board in Asia to launch that.”

Australia hosts the Women’s Big Bash League as its domestic T20 league, while England held the inaugural ‘The Hundred’ tournament for women alongside the men’s competition this year.

The only women’s cricket competition currently in Asia is the franchise-style Women’s T20 Challenge that the Indian cricket board has held alongside the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs.

The Pakistan cricket board launched the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2016, with the competition featuring six men’s teams from six cities in the country.

Since taking over as PCB chairman in September, Ramiz was handed a baptism of fire when New Zealand and England withdrew from their tours, severely denting what was billed as the first complete home season Pakistan has had in over a decade.

After initially raging at what he called the “Western bloc”, Ramiz has tried to engage boards around the world further to ensure Pakistan hasn’t been set back in terms of playing international cricket at home.