Women’s Premier League — Second Biggest T20 League in the World | WPL
What began as a one-off exhibition match in 2018, has now taken the form of a full-fledged women’s T20 league — Women’s Premier League (WPL).
Well, it took longer than expected, but der aaye durust aaye!
The WPL is currently underway in Mumbai, and it has started off on a positive note.
Now the WPL will help revolutionise women’s cricket and women’s sports in India.
How? Here’s your answer.
The Start
After Team India’s marvellous performance in the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup under the captaincy of Mithali Raj, the BCCI showed interest in hosting a T20 league for women players.
Things started moving, and in 2018, BCCI organised a one-off exhibition match featuring two teams — Trailblazers and Supernovas. The match was played during the IPL playoffs.
After this match, I thought that next year the BCCI might launch the women’s IPL, but nothing like that happened.
In 2019, one more team—Velocity—was introduced to the Women’s T20 Challenge. The only positive thing — the number of matches was increased from 1 to 4, including the final.
The three teams played against each other once in a round-robin format, and the top two teams played the final in the Pink City, Jaipur.
The tournament was also held in 2020 in Sharjah, UAE. And the 2022 edition was held in Pune, with the promise of a dedicated women’s IPL from next year.
In February 2022, just before the 2022 tournament, BCCI President Saurav Ganguly announced plans to start a women’s IPL. In October 2022, the picture became more clear, with the BCCI considering a five-team women’s tournament to be held in March 2023.
And finally, in January 2023, BCCI officially announced a new T20 league — Women’s Premier League.
Breaking the Records
The inaugural season of the WPL broke some records off the field before a ball was bowled.
The consolidated broadcasting rights (Global TV and Digital) of the league were sold to Viacom 18 for ₹951 crore for a period of 5 years (2023–2027). This means the BCCI will earn ₹7.09 crore per match!
Now, this is huge money for women’s sports. The money has started to pour into the game.
But the money game doesn’t end here. BCCI had invited tenders for the ownership of 5 teams.
This is where the inaugural IPL’s record was broken. BCCI earned a whopping ₹4,669.99 crore from the sale of 5 franchise rights.
In 2008, the BCCI sold 8 IPL franchises for approximately ₹2,894.36 crore.
The WPL deal is definitely bigger than that. On average, each WPL team was sold for ₹930 crore, whereas the 8 IPL teams were sold for an average of ₹500 crore in 2008.
A total of 16 individual bidders had shown interest in owning the WPL franchises, including existing IPL franchises.
Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were unsuccessful in acquiring a WPL team. While Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, and Lucknow Super Giants didn’t enter the auction for various reasons.
Being a CSK fan, it disappointed me that I wouldn’t be supporting CSK in the WPL.
Nevertheless, I will be cheering for the Mumbai Indians.
The 5 teams are owned by the following entities-
The BCCI awarded the title sponsorship of WPL to Tata Group for 5 years for an undisclosed amount. They also signed Dream11, CEAT Tyres, and Amul as league partners for 3 seasons.
Now the broadcasting rights, franchise rights, and title sponsorship combined have made the WPL the second-most valuable women’s sports league, just behind the WNBA.
Not just that, the WPL became the second-biggest T20 league in the world only after the men’s IPL. Now, this is crazy!
Player Auction
On February 13, 2023, a player auction similar to the IPL was held at the Jio Convention Centre in Mumbai.
A total of 1525 players had registered their names, and 409 players were shortlisted to go under the hammer.
A maximum of 90 slots were available to pick the players, including 30 overseas players. Each franchise was allowed to spend ₹12 crore from their auction purse.
I was so excited to watch the auction as this was a first-of-its-kind player auction in women’s cricket.
In the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in Australia, a list manager is hired to sign up players on contracts. Whereas in The Hundred in England, a draft system is used to sign the players.
Coming back to the WPL, the 5 teams spent a combined amount of ₹59.50 crore to pick 87 players.
India’s Smriti Mandhana became the most expensive player, with RCB bidding for ₹3.4 crore.
Smriti’s name was the first to go under the hammer, and Nita Ambani was ready with the paddle up even before the start of bidding. This was a hilarious moment!
Ashleigh Gardner from Australia and Natalie Sciver-Brunt from England were the joint-most expensive overseas cricketers bought for ₹3.20 crore each by Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians, respectively.
Some notable Indian players who got huge bids…
The Money Game
The huge amount of money in sports brings a few things — development in sports, financial stability, and recognition for players.
As I mentioned earlier, the BCCI has earned huge amounts of money from franchise sales, broadcast rights, and title sponsorship.
Now this money will be invested back in the grassroots development of women’s cricket in India. Hopefully, the cricketers will get world-class training facilities, which will eventually help them improve their skills.
This will reflect in the performance of individual players and will be recognised by the selectors and cricket experts.
The WPL also opens up the opportunity for women cricketers to earn a decent amount of money. This will not only bring financial stability but also transform their lives forever.
Way Forward
Well, the WPL has started with a bang, giving a tough fight to other competitions like the WBBL and The Hundred.
The fans have seen some of the best performances till now. And I hope the WPL opens up new opportunities to aspiring women cricketers and other women athletes.
But the league should have one more team.
The BCCI chose to keep the inaugural WPL to five teams because it was worried about the depth of talent.
Considering the fact that around 1500 players registered for the auction, there shouldn’t be any issue of depth.
Yes, the players might lack the temperament and skills required to perform at such a level, but they will only improve their skills when they get a chance to rub shoulders with international players.
This exposure will help unearth new players and give them a chance to represent India in the future, something that has happened similarly to men’s cricketers due to the IPL.
And this will also help reach women’s cricket in every corner of India.
Tell me what you think about the WPL in the comments.
