Mumbai - Ahmedabad to play opening WPL game on March 4

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have planned to host the Women’s Premier League matches from March 4 to March 26, with Mumbai and Gujarat Giants taking on each other in the opening encounter. All 22 games in the tournament will be played at two venues in Mumbai - Cricket Club of India and DY Patil Stadium. With Wankhede Stadium slated to host an ODI between India and Australia on March 17 and Indian Premier League starting in the first week of April, the board decided to keep it to two venues.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Conglomerate owns the Mumbai franchise and Gujarat Giants are owned by Adani Sportsline. Both business rivals have a presence in Dubai’s International League T20 as well and the game is hyped as a battle between two of the wealthiest and most powerful personalities in the world.

According to Cricbuzz, the Bengaluru-based franchise will take on Delhi at CCI on March 5 and that would be the first doubleheader day of the tournament. In the other game of the day, Gujarat Giants will play Lucknow at the D Y Patil Stadium.

All five franchises have been asked to sign the franchise agreements on Friday (February 3). 

Earlier, Viacom 18 won the media rights for the women's IPL for a period of five years (2023-2027), having already bagged the digital rights for the forthcoming Men's Indian Premier League cycle. Viacom, for the Women's IPL, and committed INR 951 crore, which translates roughly to INR 7.09 crore per game. The auction for the broadcast rights was conducted earlier today in Mumbai.