Women's Indian Premier League: T20 franchises sell for £465m

Players including England's Sophie Ecclestone antecedently played successful the Women's T20 Challenge successful India

The 5 franchises for the inaugural Women's Premier League successful India person been sold for £465m.

Owners of 3 existing IPL teams - Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals - secured the rights for women's franchises.

The different 2 teams were awarded to Adani Group and Capri Global.

Those sides volition beryllium based successful Ahmedabad and Lucknow respectively.

The owners of 4 different IPL franchises, Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad, were unsuccessful with their bids.

Former England cricketer and BBC Test Match Special commentator Isa Guha described the woody arsenic "a landmark time for the women's game.

The Board of Control for Cricket successful India (BCCI) antecedently sold the media rights for the WPL to Viacom 18 for astir £96m.

BCCI caput Jay Shah described the woody arsenic "transformative" for women's cricket.

A subordinate auction volition present beryllium held earlier the tournament, which is expected to instrumentality spot astatine the opening of February.

Each squad tin motion up to 7 overseas players, with England stars specified arsenic spinner Sophie Ecclestone and all-rounder Nat Sciver expected to beryllium among the astir expensive.

The subordinate registration process has already started, with ex-England spinner and BBC Test Match Special summariser Alex Hartley confirming her exertion connected societal media.

Previously, India hosted the Women's T20 Challenge, an invitational lawsuit which started arsenic 1 accumulation lucifer successful 2018 earlier expanding to 3 teams successful 2019.