The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is ready to launch the Women’s IPL in 2023, but now BCCI has faced a major problem before the start of the WIPL. The media rights were scheduled to be auctioned on January 12th but are now postponed to January 16th. The bidding will be a closed process, with the best bidder, if not necessarily the highest, awarded the rights. The schedule of the WIPL will be launched in the first week of march, and if it doesn’t take place this year, rebidding will happen next year.
“If for any reason, five Teams are not constituted to play in the League in Season 2023 or the League is not organized in Season 2023, then all the Media Rights Agreements shall stand terminated,” according to the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document of BCCI.
BCCI mentioned in its ITT document about the WIPL. It stated that they would only provide some assurance regarding the participation of some of the five teams.
“Once the five Teams are selected, participation by a Team in the League is subject to various terms and conditions, and BCCI is not providing any assurance or guarantee regarding the participation of all five Teams” mentioned in the ITT document.
BCCI’s Invitation to tender contained many important details governing the tender process. It includes eligibility requirements, the process of submissions of bids, the proposed team’s rights and obligations, etc. all the objectives are mentioned in the ITT document.
“Any interested party wishing to submit a bid must purchase the ITT. However, only those satisfying the eligibility criteria set out in the ITT and subject to the other terms and conditions therein shall be eligible to bid. It is clarified that merely purchasing this ITT does not entitle any person to bid. The BCCI reserves the right to cancel or amend the bidding process at any stage in any manner at its discretion,” the BCCI said.
It will be interesting to see whether WIPL will find any media rights bidder and if not, then women’s play will have to wait for the next year.
