Women IPL or Women’s Premier League is set to commence on March 4. The much-anticipated tournament took shape over the course of the last few years when the BCCI organised a three-team Women’s T20 Challenge during the Men’s Indian Premier League playoffs. WPL will see five teams locking horns for the glory and it is sure to help the country build an amazing depth at the international level like the Men’s IPL did for team India.
When was WPL announced?
Women’s Premier League was in the discussion for quite some time before then BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed plans for Women’s Indian Premier League (WPL) being materialised in February 2022.
However, a major update regarding the competition arrived in October 2022 when the BCCI confirmed that they were considering a five-team tournament and that it would take place in March 2023. In January 2023, BCCI finalised the name for the tournament and kept it as ‘Women’s Premier League’ (WPL).
Team owners in the Women IPL
Women’s Premier League grabbed eyeballs with a huge windfall when the five franchises were finalised in January 2023. The team owners in total invested a massive INR 4669 crore with Adani Group shelling out the most, INR 1289 crore, to win the rights for the Ahmedabad franchise.
The Mumbai franchise turned out to be the second most expensive team with Indiawin Sports Pvt Ltd, part of Reliance Industries shelling out a whopping amount of INR 912.99 crore. GMR-JSW Cricket Pvt Ltd won the Delhi franchise after investing INR 810 crore while Capri Global Holdings got hold of the Lucknow franchise for INR 757 crore. Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd who also co-owns the Men’s RCB team in IPL, secured the Bangalore franchise spending an amount of INR 901 crore.
Thanks to these humongous numbers, WPL became the world’s second-highest-valued women’s sports league with the first being the Women’s National Basketball Association in the United States.
Broadcast and media rights in Women IPL
BCCI yet again experienced a huge windfall in terms of broadcast and media rights when it comes to the Women’s IPL or as it is called WPL. Viacom 18 acquired the global media rights for TV and Digital rights for the historic tournament in January 2023. The contract was signed with the BCCI for a period of five years and it was worth a massive INR 951 crore, another feather in the cap for Women’s cricket in India.
In 2023, the WPL will be live on Sports18 in India while Jio Cinema will be live-streaming the tournament. Both the channels are owned by Viacom18 and it remains to be seen how the engagement in terms of viewership will come out for the WPL.
WPL Teams and Final Squads
After the first-ever auction that took place in February 2023, all five franchises managed to build sizeable squads. Almost every team exhausted their purse of INR 11 crore with certain players getting huge amounts while a few big players were literally bargain buys.
Here we list out all the WPL teams and their final squads.
Gujarat Giants: Sabbineni Meghana, Dayalan Hemalatha, Ashleigh Gardner, Sophie Dunkley, Harleen Deol, Deandra Dottin, Hurley Gala, Ashwani Kumari, Annabel Sutherland, Beth Mooney, Sushma Verma, Sneh Rana, Georgia Wareham, Mansi Joshi, Monica Patel, Tanuja Kanwar, Parunika Sisodia, Shabnam Md Shakil
Mumbai Indians Women: Amanjot Kaur, Dhara Gajjar, Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, Humaira Kazi, Neelam Bisht, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Heather Graham, Chloe Tryon, Jintimana Kalita, Yastika Bhatia, Priyanka Bala, Issy Wong, Saika Ishaque, Sonam Yadav.
UP Warriorz: Kiran Navgire, Devika Vaidya, Simran Shaikh, Deepti Sharma, Tahlia McGrath, Parshavi Chopra, Shweta Sehrawat, Soppadhandi Yashasri, Alyssa Healy, Sophie Ecclestone, Shabnim Ismail, Anjali Sravani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Grace Bell, Lauren Bell, Laxmi Yadav.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Women: Smriti Mandhana, Disha Kasat, Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Kanika Ahuja, Heather Knight, Dane van Niekerk, Erin Burns, Asha Shobana, Poonam Khemnar, Richa Ghosh, Indrani Roy, Renuka Thakur Singh, Shreyanka Patil, Preeti Bose, Komal Zanzad, Megan Schutt, Sahana Pawar.
Delhi Capitals Women: Jemimah Rodrigues, Meg Lanning, Alice Capsey, Laura Harris, Jasia Akhtar, Shafali Verma, Minnu Mani, Sneha Deepthi, Shikha Pandey, Marizanne Kapp, Taniya Bhatia, Aparna Mondal, Radha Yadav, Titas Sadhu, Tara Norris, Poonam Yadav, Jess Jonassen, Arundhati Reddy.
Women’s IPL Fixtures and schedule and venues
| Date | Match | |
| 4 Mar | GG VS MI | |
| 5 Mar | RCB VS DC | |
| 5 Mar | UP VS GG | |
| 6 Mar | MI RCB | |
| 7 March | DC UP | |
| 8 Mar | GG RCB | |
| 9 Mar | DC MI | |
| 10 Mar | RCB UP | |
| 11 Mar | GG DC | |
| 12 Mar | UP MI | |
| 13 Mar | DC RB | |
| 14 Mar | MI GG | |
| 15 Mar | UP RCB | |
| 16 Mar | DC GG | |
| 18 Mar | MI UP | |
| 18 Mar | RCB GG | |
| 20 Mar | GG UP | |
| 20 March | MI DC | |
| 21 March | RCB MI | |
| 21 Mar | UP DC | |
| 24 Mar | ELIMINATOR | |
| 26 Mar | FINAL |
The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League is set to commence on March 4 and will be played till March 26. A total of 22 T20 matches will be played in the inaugural season and the number is expected only to increase after the addition of the sixth team which will probably happen in the fourth edition.
Also, to limit the travel with matches coming thick and fast for the teams, the BCCI has decided to host all the matches in Mumbai across two venues – DY Patil Sports Academy and Brabourne Stadium. Both the stadiums will host 11 matches each with the final set to be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The DY Patil Sports Academy will host the Eliminator game.
As far as the schedule is concerned, Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians will lock horns in the first-ever game of the WPL on March 4. RCB and DC will begin their campaign on the next day in the afternoon game while UP Warriorz will be the last team to start their tournament on Sunday evening (March 5).
Women IPL auction – most expensive players
The first-ever Women’s Premier League auction saw a lot of players getting picked for a whopping amount. Smriti Mandhana not only turned out to be the most expensive Indian player, but she was also the most expensive player at the auction. RCB secured her services for INR 3.4 crore.
Ashleigh Gardner of Australia and Nat Sciver-Brunt of England, both all-rounders, were the most expensive overseas player at the auction. While Gardner was picked by Gujarat Giants for INR 3.2 crore, Sciver-Brunt will feature for the Mumbai Indians who paid her INR 3.2 crore as well.
As many as 57 Indian players secured their places across five teams in the auction. As for overseas players who got picked, four were from South Africa, 15 were from Australia, 8 from England, 2 were from the West Indies and 1 from the USA.
FAQs
Who are the captains in the Women’s IPL?
Smriti Mandhana (RCB), Alyssa Healy (UP Warriorz), and Harmanpreet Kaur (Mumbai Indians) are the captains in the Women’s IPL. Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Giants have not announced their captain yet.
What was the Women’s IPL 2023 auction date and time?
Women’s IPL 2023 auction took place on February 13, 2023, and started at 2:30 PM IST.
