Women’s IPL: BCCI asks selectors to create a pool of players for the tournament

The inaugural edition of the Women’s IPL 2023 has been planned to take place before the start of Men’s IPL next year in the month of March and April. The five-team tournament is expected to operate on an auction model instead of draft system which has been followed in the Women’s Big Bash League and BCCI has now asked the selectors to prepare a pool of Women’s players available which is set to include both Indians and the overseas players. 

The previously held Women’s T20 challenge had just three teams in place and BCCI managed to conduct it at ease. The same could not be said about Women’s IPL tournament as the number of domestic talents required could be more and there has been a lot of talk over the quality of players that will be available in the country. Despite the obstacles, BCCI confirmed in the Annual general meeting about the inaugural edition of Women’s IPL taking place next year. 

Meanwhile, according to Cricbuzz, BCCI has given the nod to prepare the tender for the franchise auction and media rights, and the preparations are up and running already. Recently, BCCI set the base price for each franchise as INR 400 Crore and expectations is for the bidding to go above INR 1000 Crore.

“The winning franchise will pay the ownership fees to the BCCI over a period of five years in equal instalments and continue to own the property for perpetuity, like in the men’s IPL,” a source had said.

BCCI invites Men’s IPL Owners for Women’s auction 

Meanwhile, BCCI has invited the existing men’s IPL team owners to participate in the bidding and any investor who has the board’s minimum eligibility criteria can take part in the tender process. The IPL franchise owners have already invested in CSA’s T20 League and the ILT20 leagues and they are expected to get the preference ahead of new investors.