The existing 10 IPL teams including Mohit Burman-owned Punjab Kings, defending champions Gujarat Titans, Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad too will be bidding for Women’s IPL teams. The team auction is scheduled for January 25, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to announce the winners.
Queries addressed to spokespersons of Haldiram’s, Infosys, and Shriram Group did not elicit any response till press time.
“There is significant interest among women-centric brands to bid for the IPL franchise teams. The league as well as women’s cricket as such has attracted increasing numbers of female viewership,” said one of the executives quoted above.
In 2022, the ICC Women’s World Cup had a cumulative global television audience viewership of 104.8 million, according to ICC data.
The BCCI has offered an 80% revenue share to the women’s IPL teams for the first five years, compared to a 40-50% revenue share from the IPL’s central contract revenue pool.
The media rights for the women’s IPL have been acquired by Reliance Group-backed Viacom18 for ₹ 951 crore. The deal is structured in a way that the broadcaster will pay the cricket board a per-match value of ₹ 7.09 crore for a five-year duration, from 2023-27. In September last year, while Disney-Star retained IPL’s broadcast rights for television for ₹ 23,575 crore, Viacom18 had bagged the digital media rights for a massive ₹ 23,750 crore for the Indian sub-continent.”The interest to bid for the franchise teams also stems from the value of the media rights, which is a big development for women’s cricket,” the executive quoted above said.
