Feb 9, 2023:
With the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announcing a Women’s Premier League, the inaugural season of which will be played in Mumbai from March 4 to 26, preparations are in full swing.
Ahead of the first match though, the franchises will head into an auction in which each of the teams will buy themselves the players to represent the franchise on the pitch. In welcome news for Assam, two women cricketers from here will be in the pot for the auctions.
The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) announced this on Wednesday. According to the ACA, two of its players have been shortlisted for the auction for the Women’s IPL.
The two players shortlisted to be among 409 others to be bought in the auctions by the franchises are Jintimani Kalita and Uma Chetry.
In a communique, ACA mentioned, “Assam Cricket Association is happy to announce that two of its players – Jintimani Kalita and Uma Chetry – have been shortlisted for auction for the Women’s IPL.”
“A total of 409 cricketers are set to go under the hammer at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on February 13th, 2023,” it added.
It may be noted that on January 25, BCCI announced the successful bidders of the Women’s Premier League. BCCI received a total bid of Rs 4669.99 crore for Women’s IPL which is more than Men’s IPL in 2008.
The Adani Group, Capri Global, and the owners of the men’s IPL teams Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, and Royal Challengers Bangalore won bids to purchase the five women’s IPL teams following the auction held in advance of the tournament’s debut season, which will be held in March of this year.
The teams’ respective home bases will be in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow. No Women’s IPL teams from Chennai and Kolkata.
The auction, which took place in Mumbai earlier today and in which the winners were announced after opening sealed bids, brought in a record amount of Rs 466.99 crore for the BCCI.
BCCI’s secretary Jay Shah confirmed the news and shared a tweet regarding the announcement.