Women's Premier League (cricket)

Women's Premier League

Countries	India
Administrator	Board of Control for Cricket in India
Headquarters	Cricket Centre, Churchgate, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Format	Twenty20 cricket
First edition	2023
Latest edition	2024
Next edition	2025
Tournament format	Double round-robin Playoffs
Number of teams	5
Current champion	Royal Challengers Bengaluru (1st title)
Most successful	Mumbai Indians Royal Challengers Bangalore (1 title each)
Most runs	Meg Lanning (676)
Most wickets	Sophie Ecclestone (27)
TV	India Sports18 (Television) JioCinema (Streaming) International List of broadcasters
Website	wplt20.com

The Women's Premier League, also known as WPL, and the Tata WPL for sponsorship reasons, is a women's Twenty20 cricket franchise league in India. ^[1] It is owned and operated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. ^[2]

The first season, played in March 2023, saw the Mumbai Indians winning the inaugural title. Matches took place in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, with five franchises participating. ^{[3] [4]}

The second season, conducted in February–March 2024, resulted in Royal Challengers Bangalore winning the title. Matches were hosted in Bengaluru and Delhi.

History

Winners
Women's Premier League

Season	Winners
2023	Mumbai Indians
2024	Royal Challengers Bangalore

The first major women's Twenty20 competition in India was the Women's T20 Challenge. This started as a single-match tournament in 2018, and was expanded to a three-team, three-match competition held in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

In February 2022, then BCCI President Sourav Ganguly announced plans to establish a women's version of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the major men's Twenty20 franchise cricket competition in India, replacing the Women's T20 Challenge. ^[5] By August plans were more advanced ^{[6] [7]} and in October the BCCI announced that they were considering a five-team tournament which would take place in March 2023. ^{[8] [9]} This league was informally known as the Women's Indian Premier League; BCCI Secretary Jay Shah clarified that the BCCI officially named it the Women's Premier League. ^{[1] [10]}

On 28 January 2023, the BCCI invited bids for the league's title sponsorship rights until 2027. ^[11] Tata Group won the bid for an undisclosed amount. ^[12] Mumbai Indians were the inaugural winners of the tournament, beating Delhi Capitals in the final. ^[13]

Organisation

The league's structure is based on the structure of the IPL. ^{[14] [15] [16]}

Initially there are five teams, with sides playing against each other in a double round robin format, and the three teams finishing with the most points entering the playoff stages of the competition. ^{[17] [18]} The Board plans to increase the number of matches and franchises in future seasons if the league is a success. ^[19]

The first season of the league took place from 4 March to 26 March 2023, and featured 22 matches, all held at Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. ^{[19] [20]} Tickets were made available free to women during the first season. ^[21]

The league's mascot, Shakti, is a tigress wearing a sky blue cricket uniform. ^[22]

Teams

As of the 2024 season, the league has five teams based in cities across India.

MI

RCB

DC

GG

UPW

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All 5 WPL teams in the cities they are based in

Team		City	Home ground	Debut	Captain	Head coach
	Delhi Capitals	New Delhi, Delhi	Arun Jaitley Stadium	2023	Meg Lanning	Jonathan Batty
	Gujarat Giants	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	Narendra Modi Stadium	2023	Beth Mooney	Michael Klinger
	Mumbai Indians	Mumbai, Maharashtra	Wankhede Stadium	2023	Harmanpreet Kaur	Charlotte Edwards
	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	Bangalore, Karnataka	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium	2023	Smriti Mandhana	Luke Williams
	UP Warriorz	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh	BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium	2023	Alyssa Healy	Jon Lewis

Tournament seasons and results

Finals

Season	Winner	Winning margin	Runners-up	Final venue	Player of the match	Player of the season
2023	Mumbai Indians 134/3 (19.3 overs)	Indians won by 7 wickets Scorecard	Delhi Capitals 131/9 (20 overs)	Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai	Nat Sciver-Brunt (MI)	Hayley Matthews (MI)
2024	Royal Challengers Bengaluru 115/2 (19.3 overs)	Royal Challengers won by 8 wickets Scorecard	Delhi Capitals 113 (18.3 overs)	Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium, New Delhi	Sophie Molineux (RCB)	Deepti Sharma (UPW)
2025

Teams' performances

Seasons Teams	2023 (5)	2024 (5)	2025 (5)
Delhi Capitals	RU	RU
Gujarat Giants	5th	5th
Mumbai Indians	C	3rd
Royal Challengers Bengaluru	4th	C
UP Warriorz	3rd	4th

•  C: Champions
•   RU: Runner-up
•   3rd: Team that lost in the Eliminator.

Teams Performance across the seasons

Teams	Appearances	Title(s)	Runner-up	Matches	Win	Loss	NR
Mumbai Indians	2	1	0	19	13	6	0
Royal Challengers Bengaluru				18	8	10	0
Delhi Capitals		0	2	18	12	6	0
UP Warriorz			0	17	7	10	0
Gujarat Giants				16	4	12	0

Records and statistics

A summary of the most notable statistical records associated with the tournament is provided below:

Batting records
Most runs	Meg Lanning (DC)	676
Highest score	Sophie Devine (RCB)	99 vs GG (18 March 2023)
Highest partnership	Shafali Verma & Meg Lanning (DC)	162 vs RCB (5 March 2023)
Most sixes	Shafali Verma (DC)	33
Most fifties	Meg Lanning (DC)	6
Bowling records
Most wickets	Sophie Ecclestone (UPW)	27
Best bowling figures	Ellyse Perry (RCB)	6/15 vs MI (12 March 2024)
Fielding
Most dismissals (wicket-keeper)	Richa Ghosh (RCB)	22
Most catches (fielder)	Radha Yadav (DC)	12
Team records
Highest total	Delhi Capitals	223/2 (20) vs RCB (5 March 2023)
Lowest total	Gujarat Giants	64 (15.1) vs MI (4 March 2023)

• Source: ESPNcricinfo

As of 17 March 2024

Financial background

The BCCI intends to distribute 80% of the profits from the competition among the franchise owners during the first five years. For the next five seasons, 60% of the profits will be shared, and from seasons 11 to 15, 50% of the profits will be distributed. Additionally, 80% of the revenue from the central licensing rights for the competition will be shared with the franchises. Franchises will also generate revenue through merchandise, ticket sales and advertising. ^{[19] [23]}

Player auction

The first auction to purchase players for each franchise was held on 13 February 2023 at Mumbai. ^{[24] [25]} Around 1,500 players registered their names. ^{[26] [27]} Each franchise had ₹ 12 crore (US$1.4 million) to spend and had to purchase between 15 and 18 players, six of whom could be overseas players. ^{[14] [24]}

The base price of an uncapped player at the first auction was between ₹ 10 lakh (US$12,000) and ₹20 lakh (US$24,000). For capped players it was between ₹30 lakh (US$36,000) and ₹50 lakh (US$60,000). ^[28] In future seasons the purse size for each franchise will be increased by ₹ 1.5 crore (US$180,000) each year. ^[19]

In the first auction a total of ₹ 59.50 crore (US$7.1 million) was spent to purchase 87 players. Smriti Mandhana was the most expensive player purchased in the initial auction; she signed for Royal Challengers Bangalore for ₹ 3.4 crore (US$410,000) and was appointed as the team's captain. ^[29]

Broadcasting

In January 2023, Viacom18 announced it had acquired the global media rights for TV and digital broadcasts of the tournament. The contract run for five years and was worth ₹ 951 crore (US$110 million). ^[30] The initial season of the league is broadcasting in India on the Sports18 TV channel and the JioCinema app, both of which are owned by Viacom18. ^[31]

The first season of the competition was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports, ^[32] in Australia by Fox Sports Australia, in the United States and Canada by Willow TV and in South Africa by SuperSports. ^[33] In New Zealand it is aired by Sky Sport, in Malaysia and Hong Kong by Astro Cricket while in mainland China by Star Sports.

See also

• India portal
• cricket portal

• Women's Cricket Association of India – Former national governing body of women's cricket in India (1973–2007)
• Sport in India

References

1. "Women's IPL: BCCI earns Rs 4669.99 crore windfall for 5 teams". Rediff. 25 January 2023.
2. @JayShah (25 January 2023). "The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
3. "'Let the journey begin': BCCI garners Rs 4669.99 crore for sale of 5 Women's Premier League teams". The Times of India. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
4. "CCI, DY Patil to host WPL from March 4–26; Mumbai-Ahmedabad to play opening game". Cricbuzz. 3 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
5. "BCCI plans to start a full-fledged women's IPL in 2023: Sourav Ganguly". India Today. 4 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
6. Acharya, Shayan (12 August 2022). "Women's IPL: BCCI exploring late February-March 2023 window for the T20 tournament". sportstar.thehindu.com. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
7. "BCCI to hold inaugural Women's Indian Premier League in March 2023". Outlook. 12 August 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
8. "BCCI considers 5 teams, 2 venues, 20 league matches for inaugural WIPL". Cricbuzz. 13 October 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
9. "Inaugural Women's IPL likely to be played from March 3 to 26". ESPNcricinfo. 9 December 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
10. "'Let the journey begin': BCCI garners Rs 4669.99 crore for sale of 5 Women's Premier League teams". The Times of India. 26 January 2023. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 7 February 2024.
11. "BCCI invites bids for Women's Premier League title sponsorship rights for 2023-2027". Deccan Herald. 28 January 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
12. "WPL Title Sponsor: IPL". Loksatta . 22 February 2023.
13. "Mumbai Indians become the first WPL champions thanks to Sciver-Brunt and Wong". ESPNcricinfo. 26 March 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
14. "Women's Indian Premier League franchises go for £465m". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
15. "Stunning Prices for Cricket Teams Are a Milestone for Women's Sports". NY times. 26 January 2023.
16. "'Life changing'..." Fox Sports . Retrieved 6 February 2023.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
17. "Game Changer..." The Guardian . 3 February 2023.
18. "Women's IPL 2023 Format, Rules". Time of Sports. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
19. महिला आयपीएल लिलावात, ४००० कोटींची कमाई! [Women IPL minted 4000 crore!]. Lokmat (in Marathi). 23 January 2023. p. 6. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
20. "WPL Auction starts from 13 Feb 2023". Worldcup.org.in. 11 February 2023.
21. "Women's Premier League Bcci Finally Announce Tickets Rates Starts From Rupees 100". 4 March 2023.
22. "Women's Premier League: BCCI Secretary Jay Shah Unveils Official Mascot 'Shakti'". Ndtvsports.com.
23. "'Life changing'..." Fox Sports. Retrieved 6 February 2023.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
24. Nagraj Gollapudi (2023) Charlotte Edwards to coach Mumbai's WPL team, ESPNcricinfo, 5 February 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
25. "Women's Premier League auction in Mumbai". Times of India. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
26. Gollapudi, Nagraj (6 February 2023). "Women's Premier League to begin on March 4".
27. "around 1K sing up for WPL auction". news18.com.
28. "Haldiram, Infosys, 10 IPL teams among 30-plus companies to show interest in buying teams in Women's IPL: Report". TimesNow. 21 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
29. Dixit, Ravi (3 March 2023). "WPL 2023 Schedule, Teams, Captains, Start Date, Squad, Venues, Prediction". Cricable. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
30. "Women's IPL: Viacom 18 wins media rights, to pay INR 7.09 crore per match". ESPNcricinfo. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
31. "Women's IPL Media Rights Bagged By Viacom 18 For A Sensational Rs 951 Crore Deal". Latestly. 16 January 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
32. "Women's Premier League: 2023 season of women's version of IPL to be shown live on Sky Sports this March". Sky Sports. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
33. WPL 2023, where to watch live: TV channels & live streaming | Women’s Premier League, Wisden online, 2 March 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.

Further reading

• Kishore, Shashank (3 March 2023). "WPL - a league long overdue, and already making dreams come true". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
• Schutt, Megan (10 March 2023). "India's Women's Premier League is a giant leap: we are hyped as much as the men". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 March 2023.