The owners of some of the Indian T20 League teams backed the initiative of the Women’s T20 League. Teams like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi are among the existing teams to have won the bids for a team in the tournament.
The Bangalore franchise’s chairman, Prathmesh Mishra, explained that the group avoided bidding for teams in the men’s ILT20 and SA20 leagues in order to focus on the Women’s T20 League. “We held back all our investments in overseas teams to own a team that aligns with this philosophy and core value, and it gives us immense pleasure to have marked this accomplishment positively.”
“We have been following women’s leagues very closely and our scouting team has set their eyes on women cricketers for some time now, as part of RCB Hinterland scouting system, and it gives us immense joy to see it all coming together for a team that sets to play for the inaugural edition of women’s IPL in the country,” team’s vice-president, Rajesh V Menon, said.
In the meantime, the winners of the teams were announced on Wednesday following the opening of sealed bids in Mumbai, with the Indian Cricket Board fetching a record sum of INR 4669.99 crore (USD 572.78 million approx).
The Ahmedabad team was sold for the most money: INR 1289 crore (USD 158 million approximately), followed by Mumbai (INR 912.99 crore/USD 111 million approximately), Bengaluru (INR 901 crore/USD 110 million approximately), Delhi (INR 810 crore/USD 99.35 million approximately), and Lucknow (INR 757 crore/USD 92.85 million approximately).
The Indian Cricket Board recently earned a large sum from the sale of the Women’s T20 League media rights to Viacom 18 for INR 951 crore (approximately USD 116.7 million) for a five-year period between 2023 and 2027. The tournament will distribute 80% of the media rights money to the franchises in the first five years under the revenue-sharing model.
In the meantime, Twitter was elated to hear about Bangalpre’s priority to back the Women’s tournament. “Nation first priority rather than gaining profit. RCB best IPL,” a fan wrote.
Here is how Twitter reacted to Bangalore’s preference
Doing what they do best!! Win hearts but only off the field?
— Kishlay Tiwari (@KishlayTiwari2) January 26, 2023
Then how did MI, DC invested in other leagues and still bought teams in WPL?
— Mr.X (@MrX42138479) January 25, 2023
Then there is DC who have teams in sa20 and ilt20 both but still purchased team in wpl. But mufa will not say a word abt them coz rcb, mi and csk gives likes and reach obv.
— Akshit Kakran (@AkshitKakran1) January 25, 2023
Great @mufaddal_vohra bcs they support our country's talent. That's y we love ?? RCB FOREVER
— Gurunath Torlekar (@GTorlekar) January 26, 2023
If that was the reason then I am proud of u team RCB & very disappoint with CSK&RR.
— Hardiek Bhartiya (@parmar_hardy) January 26, 2023
It's a good idea, other teams that have invested in foreign leagues should have bought a team in women's IPL instead of Ipl, for example, Csk Rajasthan Sunrisers and others… I think RCB is a good team. I say the decision. @RCBTweets ???
— ???? ????? | ???? ???? (@Adilhaand) January 26, 2023
Officially joining RCB now. Ee sala cup namde. ???
— Mannjeeet (@Mannjeeet) January 25, 2023
MI has teams in both those leagues and got a team in WPL too ?
— ?????? (@_Namrataa) January 26, 2023
They wanna invest in their own league.
Nation first priority rather than gaining profit.
RCB best IPL but still have not won IPL trophy. What a luck they have. Have everything in team which a winning team wants— Sports.world (@moiz_sports) January 25, 2023
very good !!
— amitava (@amitava0112) January 26, 2023
