6 IPL franchises have submitted their formal interest in buying a Women’s IPL team while the rest have decided to stay away from WIPL 2023. January 23 was the last date to submit technical bids for WIPL teams and IPL franchises like the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians have expressed a desire to buy a team.
Franchises that have not expressed any interest are Punjab Kings, Lucknow Super Giants, Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings. WIPL 2023 auctions will be held in Mumbai on January 25. The Women’s Indian Premier League’s inaugural edition is expected to be held in March.
Other than the aforementioned IPL franchises, some non-IPL entities have also submitted their formal interest in purchasing a WIPL team. The prominent names in the segment were Torrent Pharma and Adani Group. Haldiram and Sriram Group have also submitted their technical bids from the non-IPL segment.
The BCCI will now verify the technical bids made by the interested parties. It will announce the name of those companies that will be eligible for the bidding process on 25 January by the evening of January 24.
The Women’s IPL has already garnered a lot of attention since its media rights were sold off to Viacom 18 for a whopping INR 951 crores for the 2023-27 cycle. It is yet to be seen how much viewership can WIPL 2023 garner and how this competition positively affects women’s cricket in India.
