Women's Premier League: RCB, MI, DC, GG - What will the five WPL franchises be called?

Mumbai, Jan 26: The BCCI has announced the five franchises for the Women's Premier League (WPL) which is aimed at revolutionising women's cricket in India.

The board has started on a positive note as the broadcast rights as well as the team auction fetched staggering bids.

The media rights were sold to Viacom18 for Rs 951 crore, getting a Rs 7.09 crore per match value for five years. While the five franchises were sold for a whopping Rs 4669.99 crore.

Women's Premier League: BCCI unveils owners, selling price of 5 WPL teams; all you need to know

BCCI Scripts History with WPL

BCCI Honorary Secretary, Jay Shah after the team auctions said in a statement, "It is a historic day for women's cricket. I welcome Adani Sportsline Pvt. Ltd, Indiawin Sports Pvt. Ltd, Royal Challengers Sports Pvt. Ltd, JSW GMR Cricket Pvt. Ltd and Capri Global Holdings Pvt. Ltd to Women's Premier League. The collective bid of INR 4669.99 crore shows that our stakeholders thoroughly believe in the concept and have faith in BCCI's vision and plans for the league."

He also thanked the participants for the overwhelming response as a total of 18 companies, including 7 IPL franchises, had shown interest in owning a WPL team.

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"I thank all the participants for their overwhelming response. I believe that with a record Media Rights valuation earlier and now with these high bids, the league will be commercially independent and self-sustaining property. The league will surely provide more strength, but more importantly, create a more equitable future for women and girls in our sport. We are standing at a juncture where women's cricket is set to grow by leaps and bounds and the WPL and the pay-parity decision earlier are significant milestones," Shah added further.

Names of all 5 WPL Franchises

While Royal Challengers Bangalore claimed they didn't invest in foreign leagues to save money for WPL, Adani Sportsline - who failed to bag an IPL team last year when two new franchises were added - paid Rs 1289 crore to own a cricket team, thus making the Ahmedabad franchise as the most expensive in WPL.

Adani Sportsline, which is the sports arm of the diversified Adani Group, went on to reveal the name of their WPL franchise. The Ahmedabad-based team will be called the Gujarat Giants. The company already owns teams in other sports leagues, including Legends League Cricket, with the same name.

Here's what all 5 Women's Premier League (WPL) franchises be called:

'*' denotes tentative names

RCB & MI - the traditional owners of men's IPL franchises - are likely to name the WPL franchises as per their existing brand names. MI and DC - who own teams in foreign T20 leagues - have named their franchises accordingly. Hence, they might follow the same template with the women's franchises as well.

Total Value of 5 WPL Teams

The total value of all five Women's Premier League teams stands at Rs 4667.99 crores.

Mumbai Indians Women - Rs 912.99 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women - Rs 901 crore

Delhi Capitals Women - Rs 810 crore

UP Warriorz - Rs 757 crore

Gujarat Giants - Rs 1289 crore

In 2008, Mumbai Indians were the most expensive franchise spending USD 111.09 million. At Rs 40 per dollar, the value stood at approximately Rs 446 crore. While the least expensive WPL franchise cost Rs 757 crore.