Well... I have said this before. Returns should not be the sole concern. If the BCCI start a WIPL, in all probability the franchises will be in loss for the initial few years. But it will go a long way in popularizing women's sport and within 5 or 10 years, I am sure that the new league will return profits. Look at the Women's Hundred and the WBBL. When these leagues were started, the board suffered huge losses. But now they are net revenue earners, both for the cricket board and for the franchise owners.
Don't invest as much as you are investing in men ipl, just invest 10% of what you invest in men ipl. It's a long process and will take time and board must not carry that loss for long term but atleast start the journey with small capital. If bcci is not interested then forget about other boards to take some initiative.
The main concern for BCCI is that the WIPL will dilute the men's tournament. They believe that the WIPL can poach at least some viewers from the IPL. And more importantly, some of the sponsors and advertisers may opt for the WIPL. This argument is basically flawed, if you look at what happened with the WBBL/BBL. But in the end, a lot depends on what the BCCI and the franchise owners think about the women's game. For them, the women's league is of a lower priority, even if there is enough interest in the market.
I don't know if ICC is willing to take that initial loss of 5 years. But in my opinion, it is not going to be that long and the sport is going to be much more popular before that if necessary steps are taken and bringing in more international team are not neglected. But the thing is if you have to do something you have to sacrifice something. But the question is are they willing to do that?
It's not all about ICC because they can't force any board for doing things like this it's need some fair and love for game big three can start few things which bring good funds, and then they provide funds for small boards to start leagues or small tournaments for women cricket which could be more helpful for all parties but sadly right now we have greediness of money which is preventing things to do for game mostly things happening for personal profit.
If ICC have power then surely they can use this like UEFA and then this game has some better future and more adoption in many countries, but it's never going to happen it's just dream which is ruined by very few people's personal ego. Currently, just England and Australia can afford this luxury, so they will take good advantage in future as well.
I believe we all can agree that ICC has no such power to ask a country’s board to start a woman’s league, however they can try and cut a small window for such a league when there’s no international match taking place. Also BCCI will opt for it if they see good money right from the start, but post the pandemic I’m not sure they’ll like to take a risk
right away and start this league, hence it may take a year or two before they get serious about WIPL.
