The inception of the highly awaited cricketing league, the Women’s Indian Premier League (W-IPL), is just around the corner, and with players from the Under-19 age brackets to the senior team, all expected to take part in the league’s inaugural edition, the tournament is highly likely to deliver elite Twenty20 (T20) action as its played on the back of an Under-19 women’s T20 World Cup and a senior Women’s T20 World Cup.
The Broad of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently invited bids for the right to “own and operate” teams. The BCCI statement read, “The Governing Council of the IPL invites bids from reputed entities to acquire the right to own and operate a team in Women’s Indian Premier League, through a tender process. The Invitation to Tender (ITT) will be available for purchase till January 21, 2023.”
Post the deadline, it was learnt that just over 30 renowned business houses have filed the tender to own a Women’s IPL team. On the 23rd of January, the picture is likely to get clearer as it is understood that the parties who have taken the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document for the Women’s IPL have been asked to submit their technical bids post 10 AM.
Today, on the day of the technical bids for the Women’s IPL, 6 of the existing franchises of shown formal interest.
CSK and Gujarat Titans decided not to buy teams. #CricketTwitter #WomensIPL Source: Cricbuzz pic.twitter.com/BFpI3UBA5H
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 23, 2023
The financial bids will need to be submitted two days later but the technical bids will provide a good indication about the parties interested in buying the five WIPL teams, With the financial bid submission scheduled for the 25th of January, in a closed process post all verification, it is then when the BCCI will public the 5 Women’s IPL franchise owners.
With the third richest man in the world, Mr. Gautam Adani, desperate to enter the IPL market, especially after failing to land in a deal for the Gujarat-based team in the Men’s IPL, Ahmedabad remains in high demand. Bengaluru, Chennai, Guwahati, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Nagpur are learnt to be the other cities offered by the BCCI as team bases.
Gujarat Titans have decided not to bid for a Women’s IPL team.#CricketTwitter Source: Cricbuzz pic.twitter.com/ITdCUutxu9
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 23, 2023
With the BCCI having imposed a net worth clause of INR 1000 crore, early trends indicate towards a bidding war between a few renowned business firms that includes Haldiram, APL Apollo, Shriram Group, and the Nilgiri Group among other seasoned players of the market; the 10-IPL franchises, Manchester United’s owners – The Glazers family, the Adani Group are all in the mix, waiting for the 25th of January to seal a deal.
When the window to submit technical bids closes, there’ll be clarity as to who among the 30 odd have actually turned up with a keen interest in owning a team, and the next big date will be the 25th of January when the financial bids take place in Mumbai.
(Inputs scoured from Vijay Tagore’s Cricbuzz article)