The BCCI wants to leave no stone unturned to make the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) a huge success.

Last month, the board announced the five successful bidders for the WPL after it confirmed that Viacom 18 had committed INR 951 crore to bag the media rights of the tournament for a period of five years (2023-27).

Now, a report published in ESPNcricinfo suggests that the first WPL player auction is likely to be held on February 11 or 13 either in Delhi or Mumbai with the BCCI taking a final call this week.

Initially, the BCCI had planned to conduct the auction on February 6 in Mumbai, giving the franchises just under a month to prepare for the inaugural WPL season, which is expected to run from March 4 to 24.

However, the plan was altered plan for two reasons. Firstly, the majority of the five WPL franchise owners also own clubs in the ongoing ILT20 in and SA20, both of which will have finals on February 11 and 12, respectively.

Along with Adani Group and Capri Global, three IPL teams such as Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Delhi Capitals secured the ownership rights of WPL franchises for a combined bid valuation of INR 4669.99 Cr.

The ILT20 is home to four WPL franchises – MI Emirates, Dubai Capitals, Gulf Giants (Adani), and Sharjah Warriors (Capri). On the other hand, teams in the SA20 are run by the Mumbai and Capitals owners – MI Cape Town and Pretoria Capitals.

The second reason is the inadequate time teams have to build their coaching staff. Therefore, all the franchises have reportedly requested the BCCI to postpone the auction from February 6 to a further date.

(ESPNcricinfo Inputs)