IPL chairman Arun Dhumal on Tuesday (April 4) said they contemplate introducing the home and away format in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) from the second season but the number of teams will remain five for the next three years.
The inaugural edition of WPL took the cricketing world by storm. The BCCI organized the tournament across two venues in Mumbai last month.
According to Dhumal, the home and away games help teams in building a fan base and the board wants to take that route from next season onwards.
“Well begun is half done. It has been a great beginning for WPL and going forward it is going to be much better than what we have seen so far. We have started with five teams but going forward there is scope for additional team given the pool of the players that is going to come in the years to follow.
“We are hoping increase in the number of teams but for the coming three seasons will remain five. We are surely looking at home and away format, we will see which time slot is available considering India’s international commitment and take a call.
“From a fan engagement point of view it is very important that we go for home and away format,” Dhumal told PTI.
Earlier this year, Viacom 18 committed INR 951 crore to bag the media rights of the WPL for a period of five years (2023-27) while teams rights fetched BCCI close to INR 4700 crore.
“It has been a phenomenal ride so far and quite a challenging one given the time slot we had to start the WPL. We are satisfied with the way things have progressed, we did not have much of window as the World Cup was there and the girls had just about a week to comeback and start.
“Everything (media rights, team rights, player auction) happened one after the other but the way tournament was received, it was phenomenal,” Dhumal said.
Three out of five WPL teams are owned by the IPL franchisees, who have seen the worth of the men’s league reach enormous proportions.
“As far breaking even is concerned, those who have invested their money, they have plans in place. Our plan is to generate money and plough it back into the game and get a bigger and better pool of players for India,” Dhumal stated.
Dhumal highlighted the importance of giving players from associate nations an opportunity in the WPL. Teams can pick as many as five overseas players in the playing XI but the fifth one will have to be from an associate country.
“This is a global event. It is not India centric. We have given one slot to associate countries which will help the game grow globally. And their players did well too.”
(With PTI Inputs)
