Eight franchises in the race to own Women's IPL teams: report

New Delhi: Eight out of 10 franchises in the men's Indian Premier League (IPL) are in the race to own teams in the Women's IPL, which will start from March this year with five teams.

A report in ESPNCricinfo says the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to announce the winning cities along with the franchises owning the teams when it opens the sealed bids on January 25.

The report also confirmed that Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals and defending IPL champions Gujarat Titans will be submitting bids.

At the same time, it also said the two remaining franchises - Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants - did not confirm whether they had bought the tender document and whether they would enter the bidding for teams in Women's IPL.

The BCCI had put out a tender document on January 3, asking for "reputed entities" to acquire the right to own and operate a team in Women's IPL, through a tender process. It asked for interested parties to make a non-refundable payment of INR 5 lakh by January 21 to claim the "invitation to tender" for the same.

The report added that January 23 is the deadline to submit the technical bids for evaluation, which the BCCI will conduct along with the Mumbai-based law firm Argus Partners.

"The BCCI has listed 10 Indian cities and the venues in the tender, which allows a single party to bid for more than one city. There is no base price set, and bids will be accepted for 10 years (2023-32)," it added.

The BCCI was also quoted as saying in the report that the audited net worth of the bidder must be at least Rs 1,000 crore as of March 31, 2022. Consortiums or joint-venture companies are not eligible to bid for Women's IPL teams.