The WPL will come live in March 2023 and the technical bid started today. Adani group previously failed to acquire a team in IPL but finally bagged a franchise in WPL. Like IPL, this tournament will have franchises based in cities as well like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Lucknow. Three IPL teams and two new businesses have bought the five teams in this tournament.
BCCI got richer as they received a total of Rs 4699 Crore from the auction. The Adanis bought the Ahmedabad franchise and the Capri Gopal bought Lucknow. Besides the two new entrants, IPL teams like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, and Delhi Capitals will own three teams in this tournament.
WPL teams and their respective owners
- Adani Group– Ahmedabad franchise (Rs 1289 crores)
- Capri Global – Lucknow franchise (Rs 757 crores)
- Royal Challengers Bangalore– Bengaluru (Rs 901 crores)
- Idawin Sports Private Limites– Mumbai(Rs 912.99 crores)
- JSW GMR Cricket Private Limited– Delhi (Rs 810 crores)
Out of the seven teams, six of them already own a franchise in another tournament. RCB is the one without any team in a foreign league. With the start of the Women’s Premier league, a shift of women’s cricket towards the mainstream is expected.
In the past few years, the women’s team has received a good momentum that made the corporates take interest in them. In the recent white ball series between India and Australia, the crowd was huge in number so it won’t be wrong if BCCi expects WIPL to grow fast. Arun Dhumal, the chairman of IPL said that the schedule of the inaugural edition is still “under progress”. Before that, the player auction has to be held as well.
A total of 16 enterprises took part in this franchise auction on Wednesday. Previously, the BCCi also earned a huge amount from the sale of women’s IPL media rights which was won by Viacom 18 for INR 951 crore for a period of five years. In the first five years, WPL will distribute the media rights money to the five franchises up to 80% and the board will keep only 20%.
