More cash. More hype. More plans. Women’s cricket is ready to be remodeled with the arrival of the brand new franchise Twenty20 match in India.
The Women’s Premier League begins Saturday in Mumbai with star gamers from all over the world, only a week after Australia defended its T20 World Cup title in South Africa.
The WPL has the backing of the Board of Control for Cricket in India within the wake of the large success of the Indian Premier League, the game’s main franchise competitors.
“The Women’s Premier League is a huge development. Female cricketers in India will stick to the sport for a longer duration now, and it will only benefit Indian cricket in the longer run,” Mithali Raj, a former captain of India and a mentor for the Gujarat Giants. “The league will expand in the future and bring financial viability to the women’s game.”
The BCCI for a number of years resisted requires a girls’s T20 competitors, citing a scarcity of curiosity from sponsors and broadcasters, however did stage a four-match Women’s T20 Challenge to run parallel with the IPL knockouts. Other nations together with Australia, which has dominated girls’s cricket, and England stole a march when it comes to girls’s franchise leagues.
But late final 12 months, India’s highly effective cricket administration lastly acted after a monetary analysis report revealed a significant urge for food for ladies’s T20 cricket and the WPL was born.
Five franchises within the inaugural match went up for public sale in January and had been collectively bought for $580 million. Three present males’s IPL groups – Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals – bought WPL franchises with residence bases at Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Two new franchises had been established with Adani Group and Capri Global shopping for the Gujarat Giants, primarily based in Ahmedabad, and UP Warriorz to be primarily based in Lucknow.
The three-week match will include 22 video games, together with 20 within the league stage and two knockouts, all performed in Mumbai for Season 1. It kicks off with Gujarat Giants in opposition to Mumbai Indians.
The WPL has already turn out to be probably the most profitable girls’s cricket property throughout the globe when it comes to franchise and participant values.
Nearly 1,500 candidates registered for 90 spots – together with 30 for internationals — within the participant auctions held on Feb. 13, when every franchise had a $1.5 million cap. All bar three positions had been stuffed on public sale day.
India’s star batter Smriti Mandhana was the most costly participant on the public sale, with Royal Challengers Bangalore efficiently bidding $413,950. Australian allrounder Ashleigh Gardner went to the Gujarat Giants and English allrounder Natalie Sciver went to the Mumbai Indians in the most effective offers for overseas gamers at about $390,000 every.
Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of India’s nationwide crew, went to the Mumbai Indians for $220,000 and can lead the franchise within the inaugural season. Australian cricketers had been in excessive demand for his or her management expertise. Multiple ICC World Cup winner Meg Lanning will lead Delhi Capitals, star batter Beth Mooney will lead Gujarat Giants, and star wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy will lead UP Warriorz. Bangalore is the early title favourite with the likes of Mandhana, Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Heather Knight (England) and India’s star wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh amongst its ranks. Viacom18 purchased the worldwide tv and digital broadcast rights for the match for $120 million throughout 5 years, greater than it paid for the rights for the South African males’s league for a decade, however a relative cut price in contrast with the IPL.
While nonetheless in its infancy, the WPL match continues to be extensively anticipated to carry the profile of girls’s sports activities in India and lift the aspirations of future generations of gamers.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com