Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings are among 8 IPL teams to submit bids for Women's IPL

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will reportedly reveal the names and cities of Women's Indian Premier League (WIPL) franchises on January 25. According to ESPNcricinfo, the BCCI has received the financial bids for the purchase of franchises in the Women's IPL and will open the sealed envelopes on that day. Meanwhile, it has emerged that eight of the 10 franchises in the men's IPL have submitted bids to own and operate teams in the Women's IPL.

The report suggests that Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Gujarat Titans are the teams that have submitted bids to own and operate teams in the Women's IPL. Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants are the only franchises that have not shown any interest in purchasing teams in the Women's IPL. 

Apart from the eight IPL teams. several other entities have also submitted financial bids to purchase teams in the inaugural edition of the Women's IPL. The BCCI released the tender inviting bids to own and operate the five franchises in the W-IPL last week. As per reports, the maiden edition of the Women's IPL is scheduled to be launched in March. The BCCI has reportedly shortlisted 10 cities/venues to assign to the five new teams that will make their debut in the inaugural season.  

List of shortlisted cities/venues 

Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi stadium, capacity 112,560)

Kolkata (Eden Gardens, 65,000)

Chennai (MA Chidambaram stadium, 50,000)

Bangalore (M Chinnaswamy stadium, 42,000)

Delhi (Arun Jaitley stadium, 55,000)

Dharamsala (HPCA stadium, 20,900)

Guwahati (Barsapara Stadium, 38,650)

Indore (Holkar stadium, 26,900)

Lucknow (AB Vajpayee Ekana cricket stadium, 48,800)

Mumbai (Wankhede / DY Patil / Brabourne Stadiums)

According to the report, the inaugural edition of the Women's IPL will be held from March 5 to 23. The first three seasons of the tournament will each comprise a total of 22 matches, including the finals. However, the BCCI is planning to extend the window for Women's IPL from 2026 with 32-34 matches in a season. It will be interesting to see if the Women's IPL can become as successful as its male counterpart, which has been running for the past 15 years and has made billions of dollars in revenue for the BCCI. 

Image: IPL