The inaugural season of the Women's Premier League (WPL) is all set to get underway next month. However, the player's auction before the first season of the much-anticipated tournament hasn't yet taken place. While it is being reported that the WPL Auction will take place either on February 11 in New Delhi or February 13 in Mumbai, there is still no clarity on where the bidding war will actually take place between the five teams- Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, and Bengaluru.
And now a fresh report has emerged which suggest that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is finding it difficult to book hotel for the auction owing to the ongoing wedding season in India. This is one of the reasons behind the venue not being finalised yet. It is worth highlighting that the original plan was to have the auction in the first week of February which would have given the franchises roughly a month to gear up for the cricketing action, however, that plan had to be pushed back.
This is because most of the franchise owners in the Women's Premier League also have teams participating in the ILT20 in UAE or SA20 in South Africa and the franchise officials will want to be there with the team which is culminating on 11 Feb (SA20) and 12 Feb (ILT20).
Moreover, the teams also want to have their support staff ready before the auctions so that they can sit with them and strategise before building a team. Thus, it is being learnt that the franchises collectively requested for the date to be pushed back. Even though the official confirmation is awaited, February 13 seems to be the more convenient date for the participating franchises.
WPL, meanwhile, is likely to take place between March 4 and 24 in Mumbai.