Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL): WIPL’s inaugural season will take place in March 2023 as BCCI plans to uplift women cricketers. As of now, The BCCI will likely reveal the WIPL’s franchises’ names and the cities they will operate from on January 25.
Women’s Indian Premier League Franchises
The BCCI will open the financial bids of these Franchises on January 25. Although, the BCCI has mentioned that it is “not obliged to accept the highest monetary offer”. WIPL’s primary purpose is to provide a good platform for women’s cricket while entertainment and monetary gains are secondary.
A week ago, BCCI released a tender inviting bids to own and operate the five WIPL franchises. The BCCI also marked in its ITT document that an individual bidder can contest for more than one city.
The Indian committee has not fixed any base price. The bidders shall quote a price for 10 seasons. Even though the bidders can contest for more than 1 city/franchise, the successful bidder will get merely one franchise.
Cities Shortlisted For WIPL
Up to the present time, the BCCI has shortlisted 10 cities and their venues along with their respective capacities.
The list contains names such as Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi stadium, capacity 112,560), Kolkata (Eden Gardens, 65,000), Chennai (MA Chidambaram stadium, 50,000), Bangalore (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).
Moreover, Mumbai’s three venues have been listed. However, BCCI has pointed out that one of the three grounds will be used on basis of “availability and other factors”.
Furthermore, excluding Dharamshala, Guwahati, and Indore, the rest seven cities are home grounds for teams in Men’s IPL.
Women’s Indian Premier League: Inaugural Season and more
The Women’s Indian Premier League will likely start from March 3 to March 26. As per the invitation to tender (ITT) document, WIPL’s initial three seasons(2023-26) will consist of 22 matches.
In WIPL’s League stage, each team will play against the other twice which will make 20 matches. The table topper will advance to finals.
The team that stands second and third in the league will play an eliminator round for a second place in the season.
Withal, The BCCI stated that March will be WIPL’s window. From the 2026 season onwards, there will be 33-34 matches in the WIPL. The BCCI has not revealed any information about the tournament structure.
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