Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi Day Trophy

Past Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi Day Trophy Editions

• 2025-2026 Season

  The 2025-2026 Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi Day Trophy was held from 20 March 2026 to 4 April 2026, featuring six zonal teams in a knockout red-ball format. The final took place at the Siechem Stadium in Puducherry, where North Zone claimed the championship after a drawn contest against West Zone, winning on the strength of their first-innings lead. The structure remained consistent with the revived multi-day format, offering selectors a valuable look at long-format temperament and reinforcing the tournament’s growing relevance in India’s women’s cricket pathway.

  This edition stood out for its disciplined, attritional cricket and the continued rise in interest around women’s red-ball competitions, boosted indirectly by the popularity of the WPL and increased attention from fans tracking form for betting predictions and match outcomes. With North Zone lifting the trophy, the season closed on a competitive note, highlighting the depth and balance across zones and setting the stage for future editions of the tournament.

• 2023-2024 Season

  This tournament was last held from March 28th to April 11th, 2024, in Pune. East Zone won, beating South Zone by a single wicket in an exciting final. Deepti Sharma, who won Player of the Series and Most Wickets, and Punam Raut, who scored the most runs, both made important efforts. Central Zone, which had been in charge for a long time, lost its fourth title, which showed a change in the balance. The game started in 2014-2015 as a round-robin, two-day event with five zones: Central, East, North, South, and West. In later years, it changed to a three-day structure. The points were split between wins, draws, and leads in the first game, which encouraged a wide range of strategies. After the 2017-2018 season, in which the North Zone won, the league was shut down. The 2023-2024 season brought back a knockout bracket, which made each game more exciting and important. Matches that lasted up to three days made strategy elements more important because teams had to change quickly, recover quickly, and perform well when they were under pressure to win or lose.

  The return in 2023-2024 gave the story a boost - “women's red-ball cricket returns after six years" headlines were all over the sports news. Fans' increased interest was shown by the large crowd in Pune, and sponsors and broadcasters replied to the event's rising profile. Seeing women's domestic cricket as a comeback story is good for business and culture, and it encourages more investment. This season set the stage for the 2025-2026 season, creating betting markets eager for new storylines, star matchups, and battles between zones. There are more demands and more at stake.

  The last tournament had a big effect on the whole Indian cricketing environment. More reporters and fans paid attention to the event because of how well it went, especially because of its new format. A bigger crowd was interested in the games because they were tough and had close finishes. More people were interested, which led to better marketing and more attention for the players. Many of them are now well-known because of how well they did in this and other local competitions. It made money for the sport because more money and sponsors came to support women's cricket after the tournament's success. People in power are more determined than ever to support and grow women's cricket, and the Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy's success has helped to make that support greater. It is an important part of the Indian women's national team's growth because it makes sure that the team always has talented, battle-tested players ready to play on the world stage.

• Earlier Seasons

  Earlier editions (specifically between 2014-2015 and 2017-2018) followed a traditional round-robin league format in multi-day (mostly three-day) matches, meeting the call for red-ball exposure at the zonal level. Central Zone claimed the title in its early years, winning consecutive editions such as 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017, before North Zone captured the last pre-break edition in 2017-2018.

  The league format emphasized first-innings leads for points, refining strategic depth among players. Culturally, these matches cultivated a dedicated, if small, audience of red-ball enthusiasts, with occasional local commentary support, though broader media coverage remained limited. Financially, staging three-day games imposed higher costs, which strained zonal budgets and slowed growth in institutional backing. Politically, there was little coordination among zonal boards to enhance facilities bearably, which kept cricket development uneven across regions.