England Women Cricketer And CSK Fan Unhappy After Major Decision Over Women's IPL

The Women’s IPL (WIPL) is BCCI’s next ambitious dream project which kicks off in March this year. The event may be the third such women’s franchise tournament in the world after the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Women’s Super Smash (New Zealand), but with BCCI’s financial muscle doing the work, this could be expected to surpass the above mentioned league in terms of eyeballs. And yet when the list of bidders for franchisees were revealed, one name was missing: Chennai Super Kings.

Also Read: WIPL Will Open up Opportunities, People Will Watch More of Women’s Cricket: Former Australia Batter Lisa Keightley

According to media reports, CSK will not be bidding and Sriram Cements in all likelihood may win the opportunity to represent the city of Chennai in WIPL.

This didn’t go down well with the fans and especially a super fan, England’s women international Kate Cross who had expressed her fondness for MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings several times on social media in the past.

She reacted to the news with an emoji which perfectly captures her state of mind.

Earlier several media reports had claimed that Chennai based India Cements will not be bidding for a team in Women’s IPL (WIPL). On the other hand, eight out of ten teams from the Men’s IPL had shown interest in buying a team. There were also reports of Manchester United’s Avram Glazer reportedly getting interested in buying a team.

WIPL Media Rights Cost Per Match More Than Men’s PSL As BCCI Set to Earn 7 Cr Per Match

The BCCI had earlier announced that Viacom 18 has grabbed the media rights for the upcoming Women’s IPL for a whopping Rs 951 crore for five years after pipping other bidders, including Disney Star and Sony, in a closed-bid auction. This means that the Board will earn INR 7.90 Cr for each match—this is more than the media rights of a men’s league, the Pakistan Super League or the PSL.

Also Read: Time for Women Cricketers from J&K to Knock the IPL Door: JKCA’s Brigadier Anil Gupta

The auction for the T20 league was conducted by the cricket board in Mumbai on Monday. The inaugural Women’s IPL is likely to begin in the first week of March. Five teams will compete and all the matches will be held in Mumbai.

The global rights comprise three categories — linear (TV), digital and combined (TV and digital) and Viacom 18 successfully bid for the combined rights.

Moreover, as per a statement issued by the PCB in January 2022, the media rights for the 2022 and 2023 edition of the Pakistan Super League was sold at INR 1.5 billion. “The consortium of ARY and PTV had submitted the highest bid at the aggregated fee of PKR4,350,786,786 – 50 per cent more than the last cycle – to secure the two-year-long home TV broadcast rights through a robust and transparent bidding process on 23 December.”

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