The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been preparing for organizing the Women’s Premier League (WPL) for a long time. Recently the player’s auction for WPL took place and now another big news has come to the fore. Actually, WPL has got the title sponsor. Tata Group, one of the famous companies in India, has acquired the title sponsorship rights of WPL. On Tuesday (February 21), a deal was struck between the BCCI and Tata regarding the title sponsorship.
However, the financial aspects of the deal have not been disclosed at the moment. A BCCI source told PTI that Tata has secured the rights for five years. Tata also acquired the rights of IPL last year. In the year 2022, Tata became the title sponsor of IPL in place of the Chinese mobile company Vivo.
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah took to Twitter to inform about Tata becoming the WPL title sponsor. “I am extremely pleased to announce that the Tata Group will be the title sponsor of the first-ever WPL. With their association, we are confident that we can take women’s cricket to the next level,” she added.
The Tata Group is already the title sponsor of the IPL. Now in such a situation, BCCI has also entrusted Tata with the responsibility of promoting women’s cricket.
The first season of WPL will be played next month. The first match will be held on March 4 and the final on March 26. Five teams spent Rs 59.5 crore on 87 players in the auction. Each franchise had a limit of spending 12-12 crores. India’s star opener Smriti Mandhana has been the most expensive player in the auction, bought by RCB for Rs 34 million. Significantly, the BCCI earned a whopping Rs 4670 crore by selling the ownership rights of five teams. Apart from this, the board raised Rs 951 crore from broadcasting rights.
The matches will start on March 4, with the first match between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians. The first season of this tournament will have a total of 20 league matches and two playoff matches, which will be played over a period of 23 days. At the same time, there will be a total of 4 double-headers in the tournament. The first match will be a double-header, which will be played at 3:30 pm. At the same time, the second match will be held from 7:30 in the evening.