The Board of Control for Cricket in India originally promised the Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) teams a significant income share (BCCI).
The income sharing agreement will be 80-20 in the first five years, from 2023 to 27, according to the WIPL franchisees’ Invitation To Tender (ITT), the provisions of which are now public. The system will remain 60-40 for the following five years – from 2028 to 32 – before settling at a 50-50 margin between franchisees and the BCCI, the regulator, beginning in 2033. The IPL is now split 50-50 between franchisees and the BCCI, while this was not always the case.
The majority of the central money will come from league sponsors and the media rights auction, which will take place on January 16. The BCCI will debut the WIPL with five teams in March and will extend it to six teams after three years.
As previously stated, there is no minimum bid price for a franchise, and the BCCI has said that a consortium would not be permitted to own a club. Those who are interested must have a net worth of Rs 1000 crores. In comparison, when the BCCI sold the Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchises in 2020, the same condition for a new IPL team was Rs 3000 crores. The ITT seems to have piqued the attention of both the IPL and outside parties.
According to the ITT, parties may request clarifications until January 13, and the tender document will be available for purchase until January 21. The due diligence and verification process will begin on January 23rd, and the franchises will be awarded two days later, on January 25th, in a closed bidding procedure.
The ITT does not specify a wage ceiling for franchises, but the BCCI has said in a recent letter to relevant parties that the basic pricing slabs for capped players would be Rs 50 lakh, Rs 40 lakh, and Rs 30 lakh, while for uncapped players will be Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. The auction will take place in February.
The BCCI has also said that it would only engage with state associations and not with player agents. “Please keep in mind that, at this point in the process, BCCI will only engage with the State Associations and will have no contact with player agents or managers. Any failure by a player to comply with this condition will result in the player’s name being removed with immediate effect from the Auction Register and/or Auction List (as relevant), unless BCCI determines differently in its sole discretion “According to a BCCI press release.
