The 2023 IPL final is likely to be played on May 28, with the start date likely to be March 31 or April 1. ESPNcricinfo has also learnt that the inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is likely to be played from March 4 to 24.
The window for the WPL has to be squeezed into the gap between the women’s T20 World Cup, which will be played in South Africa from February 10 to 26, and the start of the men’s IPL, which will be played on some of the grounds that will host WPL games too. The idea is to finish the WPL around a week before the men’s IPL starts, to allow the grounds to be fresh.
The schedule and itinerary for the tournament, as well as a decision on how many grounds would be used, are a “work in progress”, Arun Dhumal, the IPL’s chairman, said after the Wednesday auction. Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, said that the player auction would most likely be held in the first week of February.
“With regard to [the venues for the] first season, we are still talking,” Dhumal said. “That is work in progress. We will have to see logistical challenges involved in case it [WPL] has to be multi-city value or single-city value.”
The WPL team owners will have an auction purse of INR 12 crore (USD 1.47 million approx.) each to build their squads, which will have between 15 and 18 players.