In a recent development, Women’s cricket in India added another feather in the cap as the BCCI released the original name of the Women’s Indian premier league. There were noise around the tournament from last year with former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly indicating that the inaugural season could be played in 2023 Feb-March.
Almost a month ago, the apex body of cricket in India had invited tenders to buy and operate teams in the WIPL. After 4 years of the competition being confined to 1 and then 3 teams, it will now be a 5-team tournament. The BCCI a few weeks ago sold media rights for 951 Crore INR and today the official name was released.
It will be known as the Women’s Premier League (WPL). BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted about it and admitted that the bidding for teams for the first ever WPL has surpassed the figure of inaugural Men’s IPL.
All set for Women's Premier League 2023#CricketTwitter #WIPL pic.twitter.com/ok8dzjmm2f
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 25, 2023
“Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men’s IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid. This marks the beginning of a revolution in women’s cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity.”
The @BCCI has named the league – Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin….
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) January 25, 2023
All the 5 WPL teams were bought by 5 Indian business consortiums including 2 owners of IPL teams. It includes the likes of Adani Sportsline Pvt Ltd (Ahmedabad), Indiawin Sports Pvt Ltd (Mumbai), Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd (Bangalore) JSW GMR Cricket Pvt Ltd (Delhi) and Capri Global Holdings Pvt Ltd (Lucknow).
JUST IN:
RCB bought Bengaluru City based Women's IPL franchise #CricketTwitter #WIPL #WomensIPL pic.twitter.com/8qVykzIUuX
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 25, 2023
