Women’s IPL auction to take place in February, BCCI announces final date for players’ registration

A BCCI-organised T20 tournament for women, similar to that of the IPL, which is likely to be called as the Women’s T20 league (scheduled for 3rd – 26th March, 2023) will consist of five teams. While the board has invited some unnamed reputed entities to bid for the women’s IPL teams, the date for the player’s registration for the first-ever women’s auction is also out. The BCCI in a document named ‘Guidance note for Indian Players’ that is shared with all Indian players state that all capped and uncapped Indian players must register online for the Women’s IPL auction at or before 5 PM IST on January 26th.

This competition will replace the Women’s T20 Challenge, which was a two-team tournament that started off in 2018 with just one match. It then grew to a three-team exhibition tournament in the following year, and then took place in 2020 and 2022 as well.

As per ESPNcricinfo, who are believed to have accessed the document, noted that the base price – mentioned as ‘reserve price’ for the capped Indian players is set at INR 30 lakh, INR 40 lakh and INR 50 lakh, whereas, for the uncapped Indian players it is INR 20 lakh and INR 10 lakh.

It was during 2022 when the then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said the Women’s IPL will take place in 2023. In August last year, BCCI decided to lock March 2023 as the window for the Women’s IPL to get underway. For that, they even rescheduled the whole women’s cricket calendar, which usually runs from November to April.

Meanwhile, a lot of IPL franchises including Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and even Punjab Kings have shown interest in bidding for a team in the Women’s IPL.

In December last year, the BCCI had invited bids for media rights from 2023-27 for the proposed Women’s T20 league.