BCCI pockets Rs. 4669.99 Cr. from the Auction of Women’s Premier League Teams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has secured a mammoth Rs. 4669.99 Crores while auctioning the five franchises at the newly launched Women’s Premier League. The five franchises were purchased by the Adani group, Reliance, Diageo India, JSW-GMR and Capri Global for Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow respectively.

The BCCI will receive the amount for a period of 10 years. Here is a comprehensive list of all the team owners and the city they will be operating from:

Adani Sportsline, who lost the ownership of the Ahmedabad franchise in the men’s IPL to CVC Capitals, paid the highest bid of Rs. 1,289 crores to secure the rights to the women’s franchise. Indiawin Sports, a Reliance Industries company that owns the Mumbai Indians franchise, paid 912.99 crores for the squad. The price was $111.9 million, which was the same as its initial proposal for the IPL team. The Bengaluru franchise was purchased for 901 crores by Diageo India-owned Royal Challengers Sports, while the Delhi team was purchased for 810 crores by JSW GMR Cricket, an equal joint venture. Capri Global Holdings, another company that failed to secure a men’s IPL team in the 2021 auctions, spent 757 crores for the Lucknow franchise.

Jay Shah, the BCCI president while talking to the media said, “I believe that with a record media rights valuation earlier and now with these high bids, the league will be commercially independent and self-sustaining property.” Tuhin Mishra, the managing director and co-founder of Baseline Ventures was quoted as saying, “It’s a huge number—I am sure the teams would have done the math since most of these are existing teams, and they have been profitable for the last few years. It is a big thing for women cricketers, too, since they will make the sport a lot more popular, and a lot of the female talents stand to become household names.”

Neha Shetty

I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.

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