Daily Times

NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket board (BCCI) is likely to unveil the names of the five franchises that will contest the inaugural Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL), and the cities they will operate from, on January 25. The financial bids of these franchises, currently submitted in sealed envelopes, will be opened on that day. However, the BCCI has pointed out in its tender document that it is “not obliged to accept the highest monetary offer” and will look for ways for the bidders to work towards enhancing the growth of women’s cricket in India. Last week, the BCCI released the tender inviting bids to own and operate the five franchises in the WIPL, which is likely to be held from March 3 to 26. In the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document, the BCCI has pointed out that a single bidder can contest for more than one city.

The BCCI has shortlisted a pool of 10 cities and listed the venues, including their respective capacities, in the tender. The list includes Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi stadium, capacity 112,560), Kolkata (Eden Gardens, 65,000), Chennai (MA Chidambaram stadium, 50,000), Bangalore (M Chinnaswamy stadium, 42,000), Delhi (Arun Jaitley stadium, 55,000), Dharamsala (HPCA stadium, 20,900), Guwahati (Barsapara Stadium, 38,650), Indore (Holkar stadium, 26,900), Lucknow (AB Vajpayee Ekana cricket stadium, 48,800) and Mumbai (Wankhede / DY Patil / Brabourne Stadiums). While three venues have been listed for Mumbai, the BCCI has said one of three grounds will be utilised based on “availability and other factors.” The current plan to have a pool of 10 cities differs from the one the BCCI had originally submitted to the state associations at its annual general body meeting last year. Back then, the BCCI said it intended to either pick one city from each of the six zones across the country, or hold the tournament in a half-a-dozen cities without proper home bases for the five teams. Barring Dharamsala, Guwahati and Indore, the remaining seven cities already serve as home bases for the men’s IPL teams. While the BCCI has set no base price, bidders have been asked to quote a price for 10 seasons. Bidders have been given the option of contesting more than one franchise/city, but the BCCI has said the successful bidder will only be given one franchise.