The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday (January 25) unveiled the five franchises for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) to start a new era in women’s cricket.

A day after it was confirmed that the franchises based in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow will take part in the WPL, a report published in ESPNCricinfo claims that the inaugural season is likely to be held in India from March 4 to 24.

The women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played from February 10 to 26 and the BCCI is keen to squeeze the tournament into the gap between the World Cup and the men’s IPL.

The report also suggests that the men’s IPL will get underway on March 31 or April 1 and the final will be played on May 28.

The idea behind finishing the WPL around a week before the start of men's IPL is to allow the grounds to be fresh.

"With regard to [the venues for the] first season, we are still talking," Arun Dhumal, the IPL's chairman, quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. "That is work in progress. We will have to see logistical challenges involved in case it [WPL] has to be multi-city value or single-city value."

The first-ever WPL player auction is likely to be conducted in the first week of February and each team will have a purse of INR 12 Crores to build their squad, which will have between 15 and 18 players.

(ESPNCricinfo Inputs)