Women cricketers are all set to join the cricket revolution. The creation of the Indian Premier League 15 years ago had transformed the cricket world with India vaulting into the pro sport league ecosystem and making a grand success of it. There is little doubt that India alone could have added this adjunct of a Women’s Premier League to kickstart another transformation in the era of equal opportunity.
With an assured Rs 4,700 crore over 5 years as franchise fees and a further Rs 951 crore by way of digital and TV rights, and a captive TV audience running into millions with purchasing power, India boasts the ideal environment to enable the women also to enjoy the fruits of professional sport, with a few players from associate countries to also be part of the mix.
The bidding for contracts went up to as much as Rs 3.4 crore, which will be a season’s pay packet for the glamorous Smriti Mandhana, a left handed batter with a flourish and the power from a sense of timing to make T20 cricket a spectacle. Women cricketers may lack the macho power of the big hitting that enthrals viewers in the men’s game, but they have all the skills and the optimism to bring out the thrills of the willow game as a competition.
The cream of women’s cricket will be on show in the inaugural season of 22 games from March 4 to 26 and it remains to be seen how much of an audience players of the fairer sex can draw to the stadiums, but more importantly these days, as TV viewers. When the first IPL auction was held for eight franchises and players in 2008, a pro league on the T20 format was still an unknown quantity.
Today, instant cricket is all the rage and one of its progenitors in Lalit Modi could take the credit for thinking up a pathbreaking concept. India’s premier leagues have made the country the T20 capital of the cricket world.
