The much-awaited inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will be played in Mumbai from March 4 to 26. Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium will host all the matches of the tournament with the opening match expected to be played between the franchise teams of Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians. Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Arun Dhumal told ‘PTI-Bhasha’ on Monday, “The Women’s Premier League will be played in Mumbai from March 4 to 26.”
Dhumal also confirmed that the player auction for the league will be held in Mumbai on February 13, a day after India’s T20 World Cup match against Pakistan. The BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) sold the broadcast rights of the league for Rs 951 crore after fetching Rs 4669.99 crore in bidding for five teams, making WPL the second biggest T20 league in the world after the Indian Premier League.
Apart from IPL teams like Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals, Capri Global Holdings (Lucknow) and Adani Sportline have bought franchise teams for WPL. Around 1500 players have registered for the league and the final list is expected to be released later this week. Each franchise team can spend Rs 12 crore on players in the auction. Teams will have to place successful bids for a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 players. A total of 22 matches will be played in the league and the team topping the table will qualify for the final. There will be a knockout match between the second and third place team to make it to the title match.
