# Women's Premier League (cricket)
The Women's Premier League (WPL) is a women's franchise Twenty20 cricket league organized by the [Board of Control for Cricket in India](https://www.edgepedia.org/board-of-control-for-cricket-in-india) (BCCI), played each year by five city-based teams and first held in 2023. India captain [Harmanpreet Kaur](https://www.edgepedia.org/harmanpreet-kaur) described the league as a "game changer" for women's cricket in the country, and the inaugural five-team tournament was widely hailed in the same terms.[1](https://theprint.in/india/cricket-womens-cricket-awaits-birth-of-a-superpower-with-game-set-to-take-off-in-india/1349203/) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/26/sciver-brunt-stars-as-mumbai-indians-win-inaugural-womens-premier-league)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Teams | Five: Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, UP Warriorz, Gujarat Giants[3](https://www.ipl.com/series/womens-premier-league-2026-129882/point-table) |
| Franchise sale | The five inaugural franchises were collectively sold for $580 million in January 2023[4](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/3/cricket-inaugural-womens-premier-league-set-to-start-in-india) |
| Broadcast deal | Five-year deal with Viacom18 worth ₹9.51 billion (₹951 crore; $176 million)[5](https://www.abc.net.au/asia/india-cricket-wpl-business-success/105293172) |
| Top salary | As high as ₹34 million (₹3.4 crore; $640,000)[5](https://www.abc.net.au/asia/india-cricket-wpl-business-success/105293172) |
| Champions | Mumbai Indians won the inaugural 2023 title; Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their second title in 2026[2](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/26/sciver-brunt-stars-as-mumbai-indians-win-inaugural-womens-premier-league) • [6](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cgl8r55je02o) |
## Inaugural season and auction
The inaugural players auction was held on 13 February 2023, a date The Guardian described as momentous for women's cricket because of the size of the contracts awarded.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/13/england-ireland-womens-t20-world-cup-wpl-auction) Each team had $1.45 million to spend on acquiring players.[8](https://dunyanews.tv/en/Cricket/704276-%27game-changer%27-wpl-gets-underway-amid-fanfare-and-expectations) The five franchises had gone up for auction in January 2023 and were collectively sold for $580 million.[4](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/3/cricket-inaugural-womens-premier-league-set-to-start-in-india)
The auction produced the largest salaries then seen in women's cricket. England's Nat Sciver-Brunt joined [Mumbai Indians](https://www.edgepedia.org/mumbai-indians), coached by former England captain Charlotte Edwards, for 32 million rupees, ten times the highest salary in the women's Hundred run by the England and Wales Cricket Board.[9](https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/icc/mandhana-sciver-brunt-and-gardner-strike-it-rich-in-womens-premier-league-auction-1.93823530) A comparison drawn in academic work on The Hundred makes the same point: the maximum women's Hundred salary of £31,250 was only a tenth of [Smriti Mandhana](https://www.edgepedia.org/smriti-mandhana)'s WPL fee.[10](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10126902241246581)
The first season began on 4 March 2023 with Mumbai Indians against Gujarat Giants, and Mumbai Indians won the inaugural title on 26 March 2023, with Sciver-Brunt starring in the final.[8](https://dunyanews.tv/en/Cricket/704276-%27game-changer%27-wpl-gets-underway-amid-fanfare-and-expectations) • [2](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/26/sciver-brunt-stars-as-mumbai-indians-win-inaugural-womens-premier-league)
## Teams and seasons
The league has run with five franchises: Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, UP Warriorz, and Gujarat Giants.[3](https://www.ipl.com/series/womens-premier-league-2026-129882/point-table) The 2025 edition was expanded to four host cities, Lucknow, Vadodara, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.[11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDbv6qOHMg) The fourth edition, WPL 2026, ran from January 9 to February 5, 2026, with 22 matches, and was played across [Navi Mumbai](https://www.edgepedia.org/navi-mumbai) and Vadodara.[3](https://www.ipl.com/series/womens-premier-league-2026-129882/point-table) • [12](https://wpl.com.in/winners-list/)
Ahead of each season the BCCI announces player retentions and holds an auction; for WPL 2026 the retention list was announced on 7 November 2025, with the player auction set for 27 November.[13](https://www.standardpost.in/media/2025-11/nov_8_2025_sp_mumbai.pdf)
**Champions.** Mumbai Indians took the 2023 title.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/26/sciver-brunt-stars-as-mumbai-indians-win-inaugural-womens-premier-league) In the 2026 final on 5 February, Royal Challengers Bengaluru completed a record WPL chase to beat [Delhi Capitals](https://www.edgepedia.org/delhi-capitals) and lift their second title, inflicting a fourth successive final defeat on Delhi Capitals.[6](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cgl8r55je02o)
## Playing conditions
The WPL's playing conditions, issued by the BCCI and effective from 1 January 2026, incorporate the [Laws of Cricket](https://www.edgepedia.org/laws-of-cricket) with league-specific modifications.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf) Matches are played between sides of eleven players, and each captain nominates eleven players plus up to four substitute fielders before the toss.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf)
**Overseas player rule.** A franchise may not name more than 4 Overseas players in its starting eleven for any match. It may, however, name up to 1 Overseas player from Associate Nations in its starting XI who is not counted against that limit; if two Associate Nation players are included, one of them does count as an Overseas player.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf)
**Officials and reviews.** The BCCI contracts a panel of umpires and appoints both on-field umpires, a third umpire for television replays and no-ball decisions, a fourth umpire, and a match referee for each match; teams have no right of objection to these appointments.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf) The conditions also provide for concussion replacements, which must be like-for-like and are approved at the Match Referee's discretion, and for a Decision Review System protocol set out in an appendix.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf) Players nominated for a match are bound by the WPL Code of Conduct, the Anti-Discrimination Code, the Suspected Illegal Bowling Action Policy, the NADA Anti-Doping Code, and the BCCI Anti-Corruption Code for Participants.[14](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf)
## Economics and significance
By its third season the league had become a substantial commercial property: a five-year broadcast deal with Viacom18 worth ₹9.51 billion (₹951 crore; $176 million), franchise valuations totalling ₹46.69 billion (₹4,669 crore; $883 million), and top player salaries as high as ₹34 million (₹3.4 crore; $640,000), placing the WPL among the highest-paying leagues for women globally.[5](https://www.abc.net.au/asia/india-cricket-wpl-business-success/105293172) Demand has shown at the gate as well as on the balance sheet; in one season Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women sold out nearly every match in Bengaluru.[5](https://www.abc.net.au/asia/india-cricket-wpl-business-success/105293172)
**Place among women's leagues.** The WPL is smaller in team count than its main international peers, the [Women's Big Bash League](https://www.edgepedia.org/womens-big-bash-league) in Australia and The Hundred in England, each of which has eight teams against the WPL's five.[15](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10126902261460898) Its salaries, however, set the benchmark: the highest WPL fee was ten times the maximum women's Hundred salary at the time of the 2023 auction.[9](https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/icc/mandhana-sciver-brunt-and-gardner-strike-it-rich-in-womens-premier-league-auction-1.93823530) An economic analysis of the 2023 WPL and IPL auctions found that, across 167 players (87 women and 80 men), domestic/overseas status explained about 22 percent of the observed inequality in sale prices and gender about 16 percent.[16](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41775-023-00193-w)
## References
1. [Cricket: Women's cricket awaits birth of a superpower with game set to take off in India, ThePrint/Reuters](https://theprint.in/india/cricket-womens-cricket-awaits-birth-of-a-superpower-with-game-set-to-take-off-in-india/1349203/)
2. [Sciver-Brunt stars as Mumbai Indians win inaugural Women's Premier League, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/26/sciver-brunt-stars-as-mumbai-indians-win-inaugural-womens-premier-league)
3. [WPL 2026 Point Table, Standings & Rankings, IPL.com](https://www.ipl.com/series/womens-premier-league-2026-129882/point-table)
4. [Cricket: Inaugural Women's Premier League set to start in India, Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/3/cricket-inaugural-womens-premier-league-set-to-start-in-india)
5. [How the Women's Premier League is powering India's sporting revolution, ABC Asia](https://www.abc.net.au/asia/india-cricket-wpl-business-success/105293172)
6. [WPL 2026 final: Smriti Mandhana stars as RCB beat Delhi Capitals to win second title, BBC Sport](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cgl8r55je02o)
7. [England trounce Ireland at T20 World Cup after WPL auction delivers riches, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/13/england-ireland-womens-t20-world-cup-wpl-auction)
8. ['Game-changer' WPL gets underway amid fanfare and expectations, Dunya News/Reuters](https://dunyanews.tv/en/Cricket/704276-%27game-changer%27-wpl-gets-underway-amid-fanfare-and-expectations)
9. [Mandhana, Sciver-Brunt and Gardner strike it rich in Women's Premier League auction, Gulf News/Reuters](https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/icc/mandhana-sciver-brunt-and-gardner-strike-it-rich-in-womens-premier-league-auction-1.93823530)
10. [The Hundred: A sociological analysis of gender relations and the (semi-) professionalisation of women's cricket in England, Fletcher, Velija & Nicholson (2024)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10126902241246581)
11. [BCCI Expand Women's Premier League 2025 To 4 Cities, CricketNext](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDbv6qOHMg)
12. [WPL Women's Premier League Winners List (2023–2026)](https://wpl.com.in/winners-list/)
13. [BCCI announces player retention list for TATA WPL 2026, The Standard Post/UNI](https://www.standardpost.in/media/2025-11/nov_8_2025_sp_mumbai.pdf)
14. [TATA WPL 2026 Match Playing Conditions, BCCI](https://assets.platform.staylive.io/platform_WLhBvWdct1EZ/extras/TATA_WPL_2026_Playing_Conditions.pdf)
15. ['I think I could see the turning point … people just came for good cricket': WBBL, The Hundred and female cricketers' experiences of professionalisation, Kohli, Malcolm & Velija (2026)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10126902261460898)
16. [Gender and remuneration in professional franchise cricket: analysing outcomes of the 2023 Indian Premier League auctions, Indian Economic Review](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41775-023-00193-w)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Cricket › Cricket competitions and records › Competitions and recurring events › Indian franchise T20 competitions*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license