Yesterday 25th January 2023 will go down as a watershed moment in not just the history of Women’s Cricket but also Indian cricket and Women’s sport in general. The Women’s Premier League became a reality yesterday and the amounts that have been spent by the Five owners who have bought the Five Teams tells everything that this league will be amazing. Women’s Cricket needed this and now the women athletes can also say that they are draws and they can also earn money from the WPL just like the men.
The details of everything will be discussed below but the fact that the whole world is talking about this and it has already become the second biggest T20I league competition in the world just behind the Men’s IPL and also it has become the biggest Women’s sporting league in the world before even a ball being bowled.
So, let’s look at all the details about the Women’s Premier League
The Media Rights
Before all the teams were picked yesterday, there was the sale of the Media Rights for the Women’s IPL and this bidding process saw active participation from the bidders. It was expected that between 500-800 crores would be fetched for the media rights for the Five year cycle but the bid that was made by Viacom Sports Network was of 951 Crores which was much more than what was anticipated and Jio Network got both the TV and digital media rights and it will be shown on Sports 18 and Jio Cinema respectively. This was an encouraging sign for the rights for the teams.
Start of Team Bidding Process
The Invitation to tender to buy a team in the WPL was started earlier this year and the requirement was of 1000 crores assets and a total of 30 parties took the ITT. The likes of Adani Sportsline Pvt Ltd, Capri Global, Haldirams and the existing IPL teams such as Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals etc also took the ITT and the interest of the Men’s IPL teams was a huge boost for the league. And the technical bids were submitted on 23rd of January by 17 parties and on the 25th of January the final bidding process was to be held.
The Deciding Day
Finally after so much waiting the day had come and the expectations were that a team would go for 700-800 crores maximum and the BCCI say down to open the bids but when the numbers started coming out the whole industry was in shock. All 17 parties submitted their bids and the results were astonishing and staggering.
The following are the successful bids and the winners and the cities they selected as their teams.
Serial Number | Successful Bidder | City | Amount |
1) | Adani Sportsline Pvt Ltd | Ahmedabad | 1289 Crores |
2) | Indiawin Sports Pvt Ltd | Mumbai | 912.99 |
3) | Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd | Bengaluru | 901 Crores |
4) | JSW GMR Cricket Pvt Ltd | Delhi | 810 Crores |
5) | Capri Global Holdings Pvt Ltd | Lucknow | 757 Crores |
The total amount that was received from the Five successful bidders was a whopping 4669.99 Crores or a total of $572 Million which makes it the biggest Women’s league in the world. And this proves that India is the home of cricket and Women’s cricket is a draw.
The Auction
Now that the bidding for the Media Rights as well as the Five Teams has happened all that is remaining is the IPL Player auction for the players and the details for the auction are as follows:
1) The Auction will be held sometime in the first week of February which gives very little time to all the Five Teams to scout players
2) A total of 18 Players will be selected per squad which makes 90 of the top players available for selection which is a great sign.
3) Five overseas players will be allowed per team and Six Indian Players per team which is a fair balance in the WPL.
4) Every team will have 12 crores in their purse to buy all the players and this amount will be increased by 1.5 crores each year.
