BCCI confirms successful bidders for Women's Premier League franchises

Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow have been awarded franchises

The BCCI has confirmed the owners and locations of the five franchises for the 2023 Women's Premier League, the inaugural edition of India's women's T20 league, formerly known as the Women's IPL.

The five cities which will host teams are Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow.

The Ahmedabad franchise was bought by the Adani Group for 1,289 crore – the highest bid – while Indiawin Sports, part of the Reliance Group which owns Mumbai Indians, have the ownership rights for Mumbai.

Similarly, Royal Challengers Sports and JSW, who own IPL franchises Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, won the bids for Bengaluru and Delhi, respectively.

Capri Global spent 757 crore to secure a franchise in Lucknow.

^{Mumbai Indians (pictured) along with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals are the existing men's franchises to secure women's teams [Robert Cianflone/Getty Images]}

On Twitter, BCCI secretary, Jay Shah, wrote: "Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural WPL broke the records of the inaugural men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs. 46669.99 Cr in total bid.

"This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but the entire sports fraternity. The WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.

"The BCCI has named the league Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin."

Earlier in January, it was confirmed that Viacom18 have won the media rights for the WPL, signing a five-year deal which is set to be worth around £95.7million, or £700,000 per match.

The WPL replaces the Women's T20 Challenge as India's premier women's T20 competition. It is understood that the five-team tournament will take place in early March and will include 22 fixtures.

𝐁𝐂𝐂𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞.

The combined bid valuation is INR 4669.99 Cr

A look at the Five franchises with ownership rights for #WPL pic.twitter.com/ryF7W1BvHH

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 25, 2023