A women’s IPL has been due for a while, and finally, the BCCI has set the wheels in motion.
"I'm very hopeful there'll be a women's franchise side associated with every men's franchise side so we're able to grow the women's game even bigger. What better place to do it than out here in India", said Ben Stokes, the current men’s England Test captain, during a podcast in 2021.
Over a year later, in August 2022, the BCCI announced that the inaugural Women’s IPL (WIPL) would take place in March 2023.
The India women’s team had finished runners-up in the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup as well as in the 2020 T20 World Cup. It made the audience take serious note of the performances the women were putting up on the field. The result was a lot many prominent voices calling for a T20 league in India for female cricketers similar to WBBL in Australia or England’snow-non-existent KIA Super League.
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The BCCI has been organising the Women’s T20 Challenge, a three-team tournament, since 2018. However, at the time, it had been sceptical about a full-fledged WIPL. The reason behind its uncertainty was the lack of depth in the women’s domestic circuit, which is pivotal for the success of a tournament of such magnitude.
It was also a tense atmosphere in sports worldwide with female athletes voicing their opinions about pay parity. In the midst of all the noise, India’s stalwart opener Smriti Mandhana, when asked about equal pay, stated in a 2020 interview that it was unfair to ask for the same wage as men since they were the ones generating the revenue for the board. “The day women’s cricket starts earning revenue, I will be the first person to say that we need the same thing. But right now, we can’t say that”, she had told reporters.
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Then, in 2022, the ICC Women’s World Cup had a cumulative global television audience viewership numbered 104.8 million.
Women’s cricket has made great strides, fighting tooth and nail, taking matches to the last ball, entertaining the crowds like men’s cricket has over the years.
WIPL is the reward for all that hard work.
The formation of the WIPL generated interest among stakeholders and potential investors. In May 2022, BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed that a few IPL teams had expressed interest in owning WIPL franchises.
Ever since the BCCI announced its intentions with WIPL, one of the IPL teams that have been vocal about owning a women’s team is Rajasthan Royals. The inaugural Indian Premier League winner's CEO Jake Lush McCrum, during an interview with Wisden India, said, “We’d love to have a women’s IPL team when it launches next year. We’re definitely very interested in expanding our franchise base. I’m so excited about the growth of women’s cricket in India and around the world.” West Indies all-rounder Hayley Matthews said she favoured Rajasthan Royals’ atmosphere and would love to represent them in the upcoming showpiece tournament.
Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are two other franchises that have shown interest in owning teams in WIPL.
Mastercard, BCCI’s current title sponsor, are said to be keeping a close eye on the development of WIPL. Nikhil Sahni, the South Asia head of Mastercard, while speaking about men’s bilateral tournament sponsorship, also said, “The upcoming women’s IPL title rights will also be a very interesting option. We don’t know what sort of dollar we are looking at. But it aligns very much with what we want to do.”
Of late, the BCCI has not missed any opportunity to speak about WIPL. Reports said that the Indian board was auctioning five franchises in a closed bid, keeping the base price at Rs 400 crore, which is approximately USD 50 million. While arriving at the decision of the base price, it considered the value of the most expensive franchise in 2008, Mumbai Indians.
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The format in which the tournament will be played is straightforward. A total of 20 matches will be played with all competing teams facing each other twice. The top team will instantly qualify for the final, whereas the second and third-placed teams will play an elimination match.
Depending on the interest generated during the auction, the Board expects to earn anywhere between Rs 1000-Rs 1500 crore. Similar to the Indian Premier League, the winning franchise will be expected to pay BCCI the ownership fees over a period of five years. As for how much players will get, it’s early to say.
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Many financial experts believe that women’s cricket is an untapped mine of something precious, if not gold, and WIPL 2023 may be an opportunity for brands to invest in it. Despite few brands expressing interest till now, the numbers are expected to go up in the days to come.
