The movements for the Women’s IPL have progressed significantly by the Board of Control from Cricket in India (BCCI) which has reportedly kept the base price of a whopping INR 400 crore for each of the teams to be sold for the inaugural edition of the WIPL.
The board is expecting that each franchise of the five franchises to participate next year could be sold for over INR 1,000 crore.
The BCCI is pondering over conducting an auction to sell the five franchises for the upcoming tournament via tenders. It will probably be an e-auction as it was when they sold the Lucknow and Gujarat franchises for the men’s IPL.
Earlier in the year, it had been confirmed that the first edition of the Women’s IPL will be played next year – most likely in the month of March before the men’s IPL commences.
What will be the format of the Women’s IPL?
There will be 20 league games in the tournament with the five franchises contesting with each other twice. The team which will finish as the table toppers will directly reach the final, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams will fight it out in an Eliminator for a place in the final.
The Women’s IPL was approved by the BCCI’s General Body on October 18 during the 91st Annual General Meeting which was held in Mumbai. “The General Body approved to conduct the Women’s Indian Premier League. To have a well balance of domestic and international players and to have competitive teams, it has been tentatively decided to have five teams for WIPL. Each team can comprise maximum of eighteen players where no team can have more than six overseas players,” the BCCCI stated in a note to all state associations.
Among the men’s IPL franchises, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) have reportedly shown interest in buying a Women’s IPL team.
