India's exit at the semi-final stage of the Women's T20 World Cup last week has been the only blip in what has been an upward trend for women's cricket in the country. The inaugural season of the Women's Premier League (WPL), which starts on 4 March and will be played in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, should erase that World Cup memory quickly enough, and give the women's game an adrenalin shot. It has been some time coming.
The WPL, to be sponsored by the Tata Group for five years, has netted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) 1951 crore in media rights with the five franchises sold for ₹4,669.99 crore. Smriti Mandhana, was the most sought after, and therefore, expensive player, at ₹3.4 crore in the auctions held recently.
The numbers are only a testament to what has been building up quickly since the 2017 ODI ICC Women's World Cup in which India reached the final, losing to England by a narrow nine runs. The Indian team then reached the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2020 in Melbourne, losing this time to the Australian women by 85 runs. Last December, when India hosted Australia for a T20I series, almost 50,000 people showed up at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai for the second match-double the approximate 25,000 for the first match at the same venue.
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