The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officially approved the Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday in Mumbai, giving fans the good news they had been championing for a long time.
After the AGM, the BCCI posted a statement saying, “The General Body approved to conduct the Women’s Indian Premier League.” The AGM decided to call another general body meeting soon enough after the acting CEO Hemang Amin prepares the WIPL model.
Similar to the men’s IPL, there will be an auction for the inaugural season of women’s IPL too, which is expected to be played in March and get concluded before the last week of March when the men’s IPL will kick-off.
According to the latest report, the IPL Governing Council could meet in the first week of November to chart the road ahead for the inaugural season of women’s IPL. The women’s IPL auction could be scheduled for mid-December.
“The meeting can only take place once the third member of the Governing Council is elected after the Indian Cricketers’ Association elections later this month. Once the third member comes on board, the Governing Council will meet and take things forward,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
At the board meeting earlier this week, it has been learned that the members approve a 5-team women’s IPL. Overall 22 matches will be played in the first edition of the competition across two venues. Each team will play each other twice, making it 20 matches in the league stage. The league phase topper will directly qualify for the final, while the other finalist will be decided by an Eliminator between the second and third-placed side.
Will IPL owners run the women’s franchises too?
Many current IPL owners are interested in owning a women’s team. In this matter, Cricbuzz has reported: “The BCCI has decided that there would be an auction for the five franchises and there would be no first right of refusal for the existing Indian Premier League (IPL) owners. The initial plan was to offer the IPL teams the option of buying the women’s franchises, but with there being 10 franchises in the IPL and the need being only for five, the BCCI seems to have shelved the original plan.”
