WIPL: BCCI aims to finalise venues, auction date by early November

The Board plans to finalise things by November, aiming to formalise the auction process by mid-December.

The WIPL is set to start in march next year. (File image) | Photo Credit: Sportzpics

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council is expected to meet in the first week of November to discuss the road ahead for the inaugural edition of the Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL).

“The meeting can only take place once the third member of the Governing Council is elected after the Indian Cricketers’ Association elections later this month. Once the third member comes on board, the Governing Council will meet and take things forward,” a BCCI official said.

At the Board’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, the members ratified the proposal to launch the tournament with five franchises in March of next year. While it has not been decided whether the existing IPL franchises will be given the first preference to pick the teams, the newly-appointed Governing Council headed by Arun Singh Dhumal will be working on the blueprint before finalising the structure.

In the inaugural edition of the WIPL, there will be a total of 22 matches in the league, with each team comprising 18 players with a maximum of six from overseas. According to the tentative plan, only five overseas players can feature in a playing XI, with four from Full Member countries and one from an Associate nation.

Each team will play the each other twice and the league topper will make it to the final. The second finalist will be decided via an Eliminator contest between the second and third-ranked teams in the league phase.

“Now with the new Governing Council in place, the venue model needs to be decided keeping logistics in mind,” the official said.

So far, the Board has come up with two options. The first plan is to sell teams across the six zones, especially in Non-IPL centres. A set of cities in each zone has been shortlisted - Dharamsala/Jammu (North zone), Pune/Rajkot (West), Indore/Nagpur/Raipur (Central), Ranchi/Cuttack (East), Kochi/Visakhapatnam (South) and Guwahati (North-East).

According to the second plan, the teams will be sold but without a solid home base, with matches to be played at six shortlisted IPL venues: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. “We are in conversation with several stakeholders and things should be finalised by next month,” the official added.

If things fall in place, the Board plans to finalise things by November, aiming to formalise the auction process by mid-December.