The women’s IPL will start in 2023 after the huge success of the men’s IPL. The Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket league in the world and is highly valued. All the cricketing boards own their league, and it boosts cricket growth. People were demanding to start the women’s IPL. BCCI has decided to start the women’s IPL after years of discussion and preparation in 2023. It is likely to start after the Women’s T20 World Cup. BCCI tried the franchise cricket format with the Women’s T20 Challenge, and it was a successful experiment. This year WIPL will replace the Women’s T20 Challenge. Since it is launched by the BCCI, women’s cricket will see massive growth.
BCCI had available 10 venues as IPL has 10 teams, and they can bid on their team. 7 out of 10 IPL teams were interested in the WIPL, and some other companies were also looking forward to bidding on the team. In the inaugural season, five teams will participate in the league. Viacom 18 won the media rights and will pay 951 cr for the next 5 seasons.
All the teams will play two matches with other teams, and one team will play the eighth match in the league stage. A team can only add 18 players to their team, and a maximum of 6 players are allowed in one team, while 5 overseas players can play in the playing XI.
Franchise in WIPL
Since 10 franchises are participating in the men’s IPL, BCCI offered them ownership of the women’s cricket team. Many companies like Infosys, Haldiram, Manchester United, Shriram Group, etc. were interested to take ownership of the women’s team, and it helps BBCI to anticipate the financial edge.
Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi, and Bangalore are the five teams that have participated in the inaugural season with the highest bid. Ahmedabad placed the highest bid of 1289 cr, Mumbai placed 912 cr, Bangalore placed 901 cr, Lucknow placed 757 cr, and Delhi placed 810 cr.
We have seen that 5 overseas players will take part in the playing 11, and one of them will be from the associate nation. Players can register themselves as the ownership of the team has been confirmed. The auction will also take place very early, and women’s IPL matches will start after the Women’s T20 World Cup.
Five teams have decided, and each team will have its home field, except at least 10 match venues from all regions of the country. The first inaugural season of men’s IPL was held in 2008, and after so many years WIPL is going to start. WIPL has beaten the other league in terms of numbers with the start of the auction. After IPL, WIPL is the most valued. We might likely see a clash between the Pakistan Super League and WIPL. WBBL has been there for many years, and it provides exposure to women’s cricketers WIPL will be a revolution for women’s cricketers.
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Women’s T20 Challenge Over the Years
The BCCI was looking forward to starting the WIPL, and it was like a test for it. In 2018, it was the first time when Women’s T20 Challenge was held between three teams and 2022 was the last season as the BCCI decided to replace it with the Women’s T20 World Cup. In March 2022, BCCI announced the annual T20 tournament for women’s cricketers, so they can have more matches and understand the game better. The tournament was held in the round-robin format, and the top two teams played in the final.
- 2018
IPL Supernovas was the first champion of the Women’s T20 Challengers as they won the final against IPL Trailblazers by three wickets. Trailblazers scored 129 runs with a loss of 6 wickets, and Supernovas got a good start in the chasing as Mithali Raj, and Danni Wyatt gave a solid start. The match reached the last ball and was a nail-biting tournament. In the end, Supernovas reached the target and won the match by three wickets.
- 2019
Once again, IPL Supernovas won the title in the second season against IPL Velocity. They won the match by 4 wickets. Velocity batters struggled to score runs, and they were in trouble then Sushma Verma and Amelia Kerr made a partnership. They posted 121 runs on the scoreboard with a loss of 6 wickets. Supernovas came to chase, and Harmanpreet Kaur’s half-century made the chase much easier. They won the match for the second time in a row.
- 2020
IPL Trailblazers won the final for the first time. They won the trophy for the first time, while IPL Supernovas lost their first-ever final.
- 2022
IPL Supernovas is the latest season of T20 challenges where Supernovas won the title one more time.
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Read about Women’s IPL match prediction on the CBTF website.
