BCCI is in a high mood to bring the Women’s IPL(WIPL) on the floor as soon as possible. In the latest development for this tournament, it has been announced that five prime IPL franchises are looking to buy teams in the Women’s IPL as well.
WIPL is most probably set to take place in the first half of 2023, before the men’s IPL. On Tuesday, BCCI issued a publication of tender for the brands who are interested to own a team and run it. The five franchises which have shown their interest in buying the IPL are Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Punjab Kings.
Chennai Super Kings is one of the franchisees who are already in the process to get all the documents. While having a conversation with Times Of India, CSK CEO Kashi Vishwanathan said, “We’ve applied to buy the bid document. Now we’ll have to find out about the economics of it. We are interested. If CSK doesn’t have a women’s team, it may not look good. We’d like to promote women’s cricket.”
Rajasthan Royals chairman Ranjit Barthakur also gave his update on WIPL and said, “We are picking the bid document.”
However, the BCCI is yet to set a base price for the team, and very soon it will be processed to the interested franchisees.
“It seems BCCI has not kept a base price to buy a team in WIPL, which is a wise decision. If you keep a very high base price, you will scare off potential investors,” a source told TOI.
“I think everyone is smart enough not to want to lose money. They may not mind some losses, but not heavy losses. If the base price is, say Rs 400 crores, teams would lose Rs 50-80 crores per year, and I can’t imagine anyone having the appetite for that,” said a source.
Invitation To Tender(ITT) will come with many aspects which include the process of Submission of bids, proposed team’s rights and obligations, etc embedded in the ITT document. For all interested buyers, ITT will be available till January 21, 2023.
