Women's Premier League WPL
An upcoming franchise league for women's Twenty20 cricket in India is the Women's Premier League (WPL), which is also known as the TATA WPL due to sponsorship. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) owns and manages it.
Ankush Pandey
An upcoming franchise league for women's Twenty20 cricket in India is the Women's Premier League (WPL), which is also known as the TATA WPL due to sponsorship. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) owns and manages it.
Five franchises will participate in the inaugural season, which will be held in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in March 2023. The final will be held at Brabourne Stadium, while the eliminator will take place inside DY Patil Stadium.
History
The Women's T20 Challenge was India's first major women's Twenty20 competition. This began as a solitary-match competition in 2018 and was extended to a three-group, three-match contest held in 2019, 2020, and 2022.
The Women's T20 Challenge will be replaced by a women's version of the Indian Premier League (IPL), India's primary men's Twenty20 competition, as announced by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly in February 2022. By August plans were further developed and in October the BCCI declared that they were thinking about a five-group competition that would happen in Walk 2023. The Women's Indian Premier League was the informal name of this league; However, on January 25, 2023, the Women's Premier League was given its official name by the BCCI.
The BCCI invited bids for the league's title sponsorship rights until 2027 on January 28, 2023. These were for the Tata Group's undisclosed amount.
Organization
The IPL's structure serves as a model for the WPL's league structure.
There will initially be five teams. The teams will compete against one another in a double round-robin format, and the three teams with the most points advance to the playoffs. If the league succeeds, the Board intends to expand the number of matches and franchises in subsequent seasons.
The league's first season, which will run from March 4 to March 26, 2023, will feature 22 matches, all of which will be played at Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium. The WPL's mascot is a sky-blue tigress, and each team can have no more than five international players—one of whom must be from an ICC Associate Nation.[3][20][21]
During the initial season, women will receive complimentary tickets to matches. At the DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai, AP Dhillon, Kriti Sanon, and Kiara Advani are scheduled to perform during the opening ceremony.
Franchises
Through closed bidding, investors acquired the initial franchise rights in January 2023, raising a total of 4,669 crores (US$580 million).
A number of businesses responded to the five-year sale of franchise rights in 2023 and 2027. India win Sports Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, won the Mumbai franchise for 912.99 crores (US$110 million), GMR–JSW Cricket Pvt Ltd, won the Delhi franchise for 810 crores (US$100 million), Capri Global Holdings won the Lucknow franchise for 757 crores (US$95 million), and Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of alcohol manufacturing company Diageo, won the Bangalore franchise for The league is the world's second-highest-valued women's sports league, just behind the Women's National Basketball Association in the United States, according to Ampere Analytics' Jack Genovese.
The men's IPL is played by Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, and Mumbai Indians, three of the five franchises.
Financial background
During the first five years, the BCCI intends to divide 80% of the competition's profits among franchise owners. Sixty percent of the profits will be shared over the next five seasons, and fifty percent between seasons 11 and 15 will be distributed. Additionally, the franchises will share 80% of the revenue generated by the competition's central licensing rights. Through advertising, ticket sales, and merchandise, franchises will also generate revenue.
Player auction
On February 13, 2023, the first auction to purchase players for each franchise was held in Mumbai. About 1,500 people registered as players. Each franchise had to spend between 15 and 18 players, six of whom might have come from overseas, with a budget of 12 crores (US$1.5 million).
At the first auction, an uncapped player's base price ranged from 10 lacks (US$13,000) to 20 lacks (US$25,000). It ranged from 30 lacks (US$38,000) to 50 lacks (US$63,000) for capped players. In subsequent seasons, each franchise's purse size will increase by 1.5 crores (US$190,000) annually.
Broadcasting
The tournament's global media rights for television and digital broadcasts were announced by Viacom18 in JaJanuary 2023. The contract was worth 951 crores (US$120 million) and will last for five years. The first season of the league will be broadcast in India on Viacom18-owned Sports18 TV channels and the JioCinema app.
