Reports: Drafts for players, open bidding for teams to be in place for Women’s IPL

The Women’s IPL is likely to adopt an open bidding process for finalising teams while the draft system is expected to be in place for picking players. The inaugural edition of the tournament is expected to be played in the month of March next year as per the reports from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and approximately, 60 players will be on the radar of five franchises.  

The team auction has had few positive responses already with six of the current ten IPL franchises showing interest to buy a Women’s IPL franchise. However, they are unlikely to get any priority in the list of interested parties and will have to go through the open bidding process. The team auction is contemplated to take place by the end of this year.  

According to Cricbuzz, BCCI is on the process of figuring out the option of selling the franchises. - Either Zone wise: North (Dharamsala/Jammu), South (Kochi/Vizag), Central (Indore/Nagpur/Raipur), East (Ranchi/Cuttack), North East (Guwahati) and West (Pune/Rajkot) - with matches held at non-IPL venues), or the existing city-wise like with Men's IPL (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata - with matches held at IPL venues). 

Women's IPL to take place in two venues every year

Earlier, BCCI had stated that it will be five teams playing each other twice in the tournament and 20 league games overall will take place in the inaugural edition. The top-placed side advances to the final directly while the second and third placed side will play an eliminator to reach the final.  

The other aspect that BCCI has been considering is the venues for the relatively short tournament. While the IPL will be back with home and away fixtures in the next season, the same cannot not be said about Women’s IPL. So far, the reports have suggested that two venues are set to be finalised for the inaugural edition and the venues will be rotated in a cycle according to the franchises sold out.