With the increase in popularity of women’s cricket with each passing day, no time would have been perfect for the inaugural season of the Women’s Indian premiere League in India. The BCCI has sent invitations to reputed entities for “the right to own and operate” teams at the WIPL’s first-ever season. which will be from March 3-26.
A Press statement from BCCI on Tuesday even asked them to make a non-refundable payment of INR 5 lakhs by January 12 to obtain the “invitation to tender” which will detail the eligibility for the potential buyers. But after a technical examination procedure, the BCCI has the last say in who gets to bid.
In February 2022, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that the WIPL will be starting in 2023. In August, the board kept March for WIPL and BCCI advanced the women’s domestic calendar which will be from November to April.
The interested parties will make the details for the ITT to wipl.teams@bcci.tv as per the procedure laid down in Annexure A. The ITT documents shall be shared only upon receipt of payment of the non-refundable fee. Any interested party who wishes to submit a bid that is needed to purchase ITT. The board holds the right to cancel or amend the bidding process at any stage at its discretion.
The BCCI has been conducting the Women’s T20 Challenge to test if this will work out for India. Ex-president Sourav Ganguly earlier stated that the lack of depth in players can stand as an obstacle in conducting a full-fledged tournament like the Indian Premier League.
After this formal announcement of WIPL, several existing IPL teams have employed talent scouts to identify players with extraordinary talent. The IPL franchises which are interested in buying teams in this league are Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Punjab Kings.
In December 2022, BCCI invited bids for the media rights for the 2023-2027 period for the tournament. As per reports, over 10 parties have shown interest.
Read more: WIPL 2023: 10 plus parties interested in buying franchises
