Mumbai is set to host the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League T20 cricket competition from March 4-26, with matches to be played at the Brabourne Stadium and DY Patil Stadium.
Arun Dhumal, chairman of the Indian Premier League governing council, confirmed the dates to the PTI news agency. The player auction will take place on February 13.
Brabourne Stadium has a capacity of 20,000 and has previously hosted matches played by the Mumbai Indians IPL team. DY Patil Stadium (pictured) seats up to 60,000 fans and has hosted several IPL games, including the final in 2008 and 2010.
Franchises for the WPL were auctioned off last month, generating INR46,699,900,000 (£471m/€527m/$564m) for the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which labelled the competition as the “second-highest valued” league in the sport.
The tender process received bids from 16 entities, including the ownership groups of all but three of the 10 current men’s IPL teams, with the WPL franchises to be based in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
The Ahmedabad franchise proved the most lucrative, with Adani Sportsline paying INR12.89bn for its team. Adani missed out on an IPL expansion franchise when two teams were auctioned for the 2022 season, with the next three highest valued WPL teams being acquired by existing IPL team owners.
Indiawin Sports (Mumbai Indians) paid INR9.12bn for its team, while Royal Challengers Sports (Royal Challengers Bangalore) splashed out INR9.01bn and JSW GMR Cricket (Delhi Capitals) paid INR8.1bn. All three WPL teams will play in the same cities as their IPL counterparts.
The final WPL franchise was acquired by Capri Global Holdings for INR7.57bn. This team will be based in Lucknow.
