IPL champions five times over The Mumbai Indians are apparently in talks to buy a women’s IPL team in order to further grow their business.
While the announcement of WIPL team owners will take place on January 25, the technical bids of organisations that have taken up the ‘Invitation To Tender’ (ITT) document to become WIPL team owners will take place on January 23.
The Ambanis, one of the business industry’s titans and proud owners of the Mumbai Indians, may get a team in the WIPL, extending their domination in franchise cricket.
Apart from the Mumbai Indians, they also own MI Emirates in the present ILT20 and MI Cape Town in the ongoing inaugural SA20. According to Cricbuzz, MI is now the front-runner to acquire a franchise in the Women’s IPL as well.
The following days will be crucial for women’s cricket in India, as it will become evident who everyone is interested in investing heavily in the WIPL.
Given that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has enforced a net worth clause of INR 1000 crore, it is inevitable that several major corporations would be among them. There has been much conjecture about two of India’s and the world’s largest corporations, the Ambanis and the Adanis, and the hearings on January 25 may prove this.
Surprisingly, although the Ambanis are allegedly highly interested in the WIPL, their competitors the Adanis seem to be rather silent on the subject. They have remained under the spotlight after apparent disappointment during the IPL auction, when they were unable to get the Ahmedabad franchise.
