Women’s Premier League 2023 Schedule: Start Date, Possible Venues, Teams, Format, Where to Watch, Complete Details
Women’s Premier League 2023 Schedule: Start Date, Possible Venues, Teams, Format, Where to Watch, Complete Details: On January 25, 2023, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) unveiled the winners of the technical bids for the Women’s Premier League – the term coined for Women’s IPL by the BCCI, to revolutionise women’s cricket in India. Five franchises were announced to be a part of the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League.
The Indian cricket board saw a windfall of a staggering INR 4669.9 crores with the sale of five franchises in the Women’s Premier League 2023. Over a dozen business entities, including the seven IPL franchise owners, had participated in the Women’s Premier League team auction, however, only five of them received the franchises.
This article will lead you through the Women’s Premier League 2023 Schedule: Start Date, Possible Venues, Teams, Format, Where to Watch.
Women’s Premier League Team Auction
The BCCI on 25th January announced the winners of the five franchises in the Women’s Premier League. Adani Sportsline Private Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Group, placed the highest bid in the entire auction. The Adani group splurged a colossal INR 1289 Crores and eventually picked the Ahmedabad-based franchise.
Meanwhile, Indiawin Sports Private Limited, sports wing of Mukesh Ambani – the owner of Mumbai Indians, spend INR 912.99 Crores to get the Mumbai-based franchise. Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) placed the third highest bid – 901 Crores -in the auction and got the rights for the Bangalore-based team.
Delhi Capitals bagged Delhi based franchise by spending 810 Crores while Capri Global Private Limited was awarded Lucknow following its bid of INR 757 Crores.
Interestingly, Bengaluru and Chennai attracted the highest number of bidders (12) followed by Indore (11), Kolkata (9), and Lucknow, Guwahati and Delhi had 8 buyers. Dharmshala and Ahmedabad had six bidders while Mumbai had the least (4).
It is important to note that a business entity was entitled to bid for more than one franchise and if it raised the highest bid, it would get to pick its preferred franchise.
FIVE TEAMS
FIVE VENUES 🏟️
Welcome to the Women's Premier League 🙌🙌#WPL pic.twitter.com/29MNGEDDXe— BCCI (@BCCI) January 25, 2023
Women’s Premier League 2023 Start Date and End Date
ESPNcricinfo has reported that the Women’s Premier League 2023 is likely to be played from March 4 to March 24. The inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League will be held in 20 days window.
Interestingly, the WPL 2023 is sandwiched between the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, which will be held from February 10-26, and Men’s Indian Premier League (IPL).
Women’s Premier League 2023 Schedule
The BCCI is in the process of preparing the Women’s Premier League 2023 Schedule. It will be updated here as soon as BCCI announce it. Stay Tuned.
WPL 2023 Format and Matches
The Women’s Premier League 2023 will consist of 22 matches over the course of 20 days. Each of the five teams will play each other twice in the league stage, making it 20 matches in the league stage. Meanwhile, the highest-ranked team in the points table after the league stage will directly qualify for the finals while the second and third-ranked teams will fight it out in the eliminator and we will get the second finalist team.
Player Auction & Team Purse
The Player auction in the Women’s Premier League 2023 will be held in same fashion as Men’s IPL. The cricketers will be divided in different categories depending on their set base price, which could be either of INR 50 Lakhs, 40 Lakhs or 30 Lakhs, for the capped players. Meanwhile the base price will be set at INR 20 Lakhs and INR 10 Lakhs for the uncapped players.
Each of the five franchise will have a purse value of INR 12 Crores.
Image Source: BCCI/IPL Team Composition and Overseas Players in WPL 2023
A WPL squad can have a maximum of 18 players while the minimum limit is set at 15. Talking about the playing 11, a team is likely field as many as 5 overseas players, of which one has to be from associate nation. The official confirmation from the BCCI on WPL team compositon is yet to be made.
Women’s Premier League 2023 Venue
Considering the logistics issue the Indian cricket board is likely to host all the matches of the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League in just one city. Mumbai’s three stadiums – Wankhede Stadium, DY Patil Stadium and Brabourne Stadium are likely to be the venues for WPL 2023.
Where to Watch Women’s Premier League 2023
The media rights of the Women’s Premier League is with Viacom18. The broadcasting company bagged the five year deal for a massive INR 951 Crores, which makes per game cost INR 7.09 Crores.
The live stream can be accessed on Jio Cinema Application while the Sport18 will telecast the matches.
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