Why WPL is critical to building women's cricket economy 

The Twenty20 cricket format, or T20 as it's more popularly known, is set to get a huge boost. Starting 4 March, the first season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will be played for around three weeks with five teams. This follows the mega success of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which debuted in 2008 and for the last season had over 400 million viewers across television and digital. 

What cricket means to the average Indian is beyond doubt. The money spent on acquiring rights or to promote teams or get one’s brand advertised are today worth several billion dollars. While cricket is a thriving business model, the audience profile for the upcoming WPL promises to be interesting. After all, it is that factor set to determine a host of decisions.  

Balu Nayar, former MD of IMG and a key architect of the IPL, brings in an interesting perspective. “The IPL was designed to attract women, where sports had typically fallen behind and the shorter duration T20 as a basic product offering helped. We looked to attract the GEC (general entertainment channels) audiences, though within that our first target were younger women,” he says. According to him, that approached worked pretty well and was given a real boost after the then Star India (now Disney Star) took over the rights (it was held by Sony for a decade), with regionalisation and content playing a part. “The city feeling helped attract young women, especially in locations like Bangalore and Chennai.” 

Cricket is a big numbers game and the moment, there is viewership, a lot of things start to fall into place. Madan Mohapatra, an independent marketing and media consultant, believes that the WPL will create the same magic that the IPL did. “The women’s format should have started much earlier. It will further accentuate the popularity of women’s cricket among the mass, especially women,” he says. That’s not perhaps only the only positive. “Parents will now recognise cricket as a viable career option for women cricketers since it brings in both credibility and earnings. It can be a huge inspiration for budding women cricketers and over time, will make the game more competitive through increased popularity.”  

Of course, building an audience takes time and it is natural that the men’s version will be preferred since it has been around for years. Nayar points out how platforms like SheThePeople are getting involved too to aid in fan acquisition and engagement. India doing well in the WPL is sure to lay the foundation for a larger play. Mohapatra is clear that the standard of Indian women’s cricket will significantly improve.  

"Faces will be recognised and that means more opportunity to monetise time of the cricket through endorsements among other things. There is now an opportunity to build a new women’s cricket economy across the world. Eventually, the dependence on India will only increase and make it more influential at the International Cricket Council (ICC).” 

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