MUMBAI: Yet another revenue landmark for Indian cricket was registered Wednesday after the sale of five franchises that will make up the first season of the Women’s Premier League (NOT Women’s Indian Premier league) raked in a combined Rs 4669.99 crore.
For perspective, this is a higher number than the BCCI got from the sale of eight teams when the Indian Premier League was launched in 2008.
The team bids cover a ten-year period – 2023 to 2032.
Gautam Adani’s Adani Sportsline, Reliance Industries Limited’s IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW-GMR Cricket and Capri Global are the owners of the five teams that will make up the Women’s Premier League (WPL), BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah, in a series of tweets, posted: “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men’s IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women’s cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women’s cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league – Women’s Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
Seventeen bidders, including seven entities that own men’s IPL teams, participated in the auction, which was a closed-bid process, held here Wednesday.
A key eligibility criterion for bidding, as listed by the BCCI as part of clearing the technical-bid process, was for the bidders to have audited net worth of at least Rs 1000 crore as of March 31, 2022.
The BCCI had listed ten Indian cities and the venues in the tender document, which allows a single party to bid for more than one city. Bids have be accepted for a ten-year period – 2023 to 2032. The ten shortlisted cities and venues are Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi Stadium, capacity 112,560), Kolkata (Eden Gardens, 65,000), Chennai (MA Chidambaram Stadium, 50,000), Bengaluru (M Chinnaswamy Stadium, 42,000), Delhi (Arun Jaitley Stadium, 55,000), Dharamsala (HPCA stadium, 20,900), Guwahati (Barsapara Stadium, 38,650), Indore (Holkar Stadium, 26,900), Lucknow (AB Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, 48,800) and Mumbai (Wankhede/DY Patil/Brabourne Stadiums).
Auction purse
An auction purse of INR 12 crore would be available for each franchise to build their squads for the first season.
The BCCI has not yet formally announced the auction date, but it is expected to be in the first week of February, as per ESPNcricnfo.
In the bid document, the BCCI has mentioned that squad sizes would have to be between 15 and 18. A total of seven overseas players would be allowed in each squad, including those from Associate countries. As for playing XIs, there is a cap of five overseas players including one from an Associate country.
The inaugural season of the women’s IPL is likely to be played between March 5 and March 23, but a final schedule is still being worked out.
