BCCI to unveil names & cities of all five Women's IPL franchises on January 25: Report

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will reportedly unveil the names and cities of Women's Indian Premier League (WIPL) franchises on January 25. According to ESPNcricinfo, the BCCI will open the financial bids for all five franchises on that day. The bids have been submitted in sealed envelopes by interested parties, who took part in the process after the BCCI released the tender inviting bids to own and operate the five franchises in the WIPL last week. 

The report also states that the BCCI has shortlisted 10 cities across India and that a single bidder can contest for more than one city. The 10 cities and their respective venues have reportedly been listed in the tender document released by the BCCI last week. Earlier, the BCCI had planned to assign each franchise a city from one of the six zones across the country. The plan is no longer in action and bidders have been given the option of contesting for more than one franchise/city. However, the successful bidder will only be given one franchise/city. 

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 22-34 matches in a season. 

Image: BCCI