Kolkata Knight Riders keen to own a Women’s IPL team, CAB ready to offer necessary support

The Knight Riders Group, owners of two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), are keen to acquire a franchise in the inaugural Women’s IPL that will kick off in 2023, Sportskeeda has reliably learned.

If sources are to be believed, the franchise will most likely be based out of Kolkata and could include several Bengal players, unlike the men’s team that has no local representation. Although the Knight Riders Group haven’t officially confirmed the development yet, a source with knowledge of the matter told Sportskeeda on Friday, August 12:

“As far as I know, they [the Knight Riders Group] are quite interested in buying the Kolkata franchise for the Women’s IPL and working together with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to groom and pick players. The Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) will be a good rehearsal for them.”

Incidentally, a couple of months ago, the Knight Riders Group announced their first-ever women’s team, Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) Women, which will compete in the inaugural WCPL starting on August 30.

Led by star West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin, TKR Women will feature some Trinidadian female cricketers and have a strong local flavor in the three-team league. The two other franchises – Barbados Royals Women and Guyana Amazon Warriors Women – will be captained by Hayley Matthews and Stefanie Taylor, respectively.

Jointly owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her industrialist husband Jay Mehta, the Knight Riders Group are looking to achieve international expansion by investing in T20 leagues around the globe. Apart from KKR and TKR, their properties also include the Los Angeles franchise in Major League Cricket and the Abu Dhabi franchise in the UAE T20 League.

Bengal, meanwhile, have been one of the most formidable outfits in Indian women’s domestic cricket across various age groups. In 2019, Bengal Women completed a treble by winning the U-19, U-23 and senior national championships. Bengal Women also finished runners-up in the 2019-20 Women’s Senior T20 Trophy.

Following in the footsteps of Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh, who are vital members of the current Indian women’s team, several young Bengal female cricketers like Dhara Gujjar, Titas Sadhu, Mita Paul, Hrishita Basu and Bidisha Dey will look to break into the national team soon with strong domestic performances.

On Thursday (August 11), KKR hosted a day-long camp at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens involving members of the Bengal women’s team and some U-18 male cricketers.

CAB, on their part, organized the inaugural Byju’s Bengal Women’s T20 Blast earlier this year, where six teams participated with Mohammedan Sporting Club emerging winners.

When contacted by Sportskeeda on Friday, a senior CAB office bearer praised KKR’s endeavors to support women’s cricket, saying:

“It’s good to see KKR promote women’s cricket. Although they haven’t yet spoken to us about the Women’s IPL, we’re ready to help them in every possible way, be it in terms of infrastructure or talent pool.”

According to reports, the inaugural Women’s IPL involving five to six teams will be held in March 2023 after the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa. In separate interviews with the Press Trust of India (PTI) earlier this year, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, too, had confirmed that a full-fledged Women’s IPL would commence in 2023.

Notably, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have publicly expressed their interest in buying Women’s IPL franchises.