In a major development to the imminent Women's Indian Premier League (WIPL), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited tender to own and operate teams. The inaugural season of the women's IPL is expected to be played from March 3 to 26 which will be followed by the Men's IPL later in April.
"Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announces release of Invitation to Tender for the right to own and operate a team in Women's Indian Premier League.
"The Governing Council of the IPL invites bids from reputed entities to acquire the right to own and operate a team in Women's Indian Premier League, through a tender process,” read a statement from the board.
“The detailed terms and conditions governing the tender process including eligibility requirements, process for submissions of bids, proposed team’s rights and obligations, etc. are contained in the ‘Invitation to Tender’ (“ITT”) which will be made available on receipt of payment of a non-refundable fee of INR 5,00,000 (Rupees Five Lakhs Only) plus any applicable Goods and Services Tax. The procedure to procure the ITT documents is enlisted in Annexure A to this document. The ITT will be available for purchase till January 21, 2023,” the media advisory released by BCCI secretary Jay Shah read.
"Interested parties are requested to email the details of payment made for the purchase of the ITT to wipl.teams@bcci.tv , as per the procedure laid down in Annexure A. It is clarified that the ITT documents shall be shared only upon receipt of payment of the non-refundable fee as above.
Any interested party wishing to submit a bid is required to purchase the ITT. However, only those satisfying the eligibility criteria set out in the ITT and subject to the other terms and conditions set out therein, shall be eligible to bid. It is clarified that merely purchasing this ITT does not entitle any person to bid.
BCCI reserves the right to cancel or amend the bidding process at any stage in any manner at its discretion," it added.
As per the plan proposed by The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), a total of 22 league games will be played with teams to play each other twice, with each squad comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. No more than five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.
The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator between the second and third-ranked teams from the league phase. The BCCI is yet to finalise the schedule of the WIPL. The WIPL is likely to clash with the inaugural season of the Women's Pakistan Super League.
As far as the sale of teams are concerned, it may take place zone wise with the board shortlisting two cities for each zone: Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Vizag (South) and Guwahati (North-East).
Calls for an IPL style league for women grew louder with the growth of the game in India, sparked by the team's runners-up finish in 2017. WBBL is taking place in Australia since 2016, while the Hundred was introduced in the UK last year. Pakistan has also announced a women's league for next year.
"There is an overall increase of 111 per cent in participation of players along various categories in last eight years.
