WPL 2025: UP Warriors player Chamari Athapaththu will be out of the league soon; Know the reason

UP Warriors team's Chamari Athapaththu will be out of the final stage of the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2025, as she will join the Sri Lankan team for the white-ball tour of New Zealand starting from March 4 in Napier. Her departure will be the second major blow to UP Warriors, who are already playing without regular captain Alyssa Healy due to injury.

According to the report, Athapaththu will be available for UP Warriors till February 26. After the February 26 match against Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru, UPW will travel to Lucknow for the final league stage of the tournament, where they will play three home matches. The team has played only one match so far, in which they left Athapaththu out of the playing XI, resulting in a defeat to Gujarat Giants.

Athapaththu was named captain of Sri Lanka's 16-member squad, which was announced by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Monday. The Sri Lankan team will leave for New Zealand on February 22 for three ODIs and three T20Is. Amelia Kerr, the only New Zealand player in the WPL this season, will miss the upcoming bilateral series as she will play the entire WPL, including the knockout stage if Mumbai Indians qualify.

If the Mumbai Indians reach the final on the 15th of March, then also, Kerr will miss the opening two matches of the two-match New Zealand T20I series on 14 and 16 of March. Last year, also had also missed England's T20 series for being available for the whole of the WPL.

The clash with New Zealand 2024 T20 series made this a contentious point, with England's Heather Knight (RCB) and Lauren Bell (UPW) choosing not to take up their positions in the WPL and instead play for their national sides. Athapaththu had been standing in for Bell on the UPW team.

In response to such scheduling clashes, boards such as the ECB have assured players that international events will not clash with the WPL in the future. As per the new Women's Future Tours Programme (FTP), the WPL is scheduled to move from its current February-March window to January-February in 2026. The FTP has also created separate windows for the Hundred (August) and WBBL (November) until 2029 to prevent similar clashes between international and T20 leagues.