All Things Sports

Hi guys, welcome back to All Things Sports! This week’s post is going to be about cricket. Growing up in an Indian household, I always watch cricket, whether it be the IPL, T20 World Cup, Test Matches, the ODI World Cup, or any other exciting competition. Cricket is one of the biggest sports in the world with the India vs Pakistan match at the 2019 ICC World Cup getting 273 million unique viewers, more than double that of the Super Bowl that year. However, despite it being a very large sport, most of the money, glory, and fame comes from the men’s game. The women’s game, despite there being interest, is not as big and hasn’t seen major growth the way the men’s game has seen growth over recent years. This is all set to change however, with the first Women’s IPL being run and concluding this weekend. 

The inaugural Women’s IPL concluded this weekend with the Mumbai Indians winning the final over the Delhi Capitals Although Mumbai are the champions, the real winner has to be women’s cricket. That is because of what this competition has meant for the sport. To see the value let’s look at the money. According to the Associated Press, the five franchises involved in the tournament were sold for a combined 580 million dollars and the TV rights were sold for 120 million dollars over 5 years. The top earners are expected to make in excess of 200,000 dollars per year with the top earner making 413,000 dollars. Now these figures pale in comparison to the men’s game, but it is a start. What these figures do show is that the interest is there. The only reason India’s very strict cricket board, the BCCI, allowed for this league to be created is because there was research indicating that there was interest in the women’s game and a potential for growth in the women’s game. This is the same group that barred cricket from becoming an Olympic sport(yes they really did that but that is for another blog post). The fact that they let this be formed is a sign that the women’s game can and will grow. The impact of a T20 cricket league in India has been felt before.

In 2008, a man by the name of Lalit Modi decided to create the IPL or Indian Premier League. This league is now one of the biggest leagues in the world across all sports with television deals being worth amounts similar to that of the English Premier League in soccer or the NFL. The growth has been insane and it is largely responsible for the boom in money and popularity that men’s cricket has seen since then. That all came from the creation of the IPL. How about the Women’s IPL you might say? Well based on research highlighting a lot of interest, the money that is already there at the start, and the fact that cricket is becoming more popular in general it seems as if history is beginning to repeat itself. Cricket, especially women’s cricket, has long had the problem of being financially unsustainable. Many cricketers can not afford to play full time because the money made was not enough to provide for them and their families. However, that is all changing and the creation of this new league is certainly going to help with that. A big problem facing women’s sports as a whole is that there is simply not enough money in these sports to pay the players well. It has led to players having to play in multiple places, have multiple jobs, or do other things just to make a living. It was this kind of problem that led to the Britney Griner issue. The Women’s IPL can and will solve this problem for female cricketers just as the IPL solved it for the men’s game. It can provide women a means to make a full living off of cricket and put more money into women’s sports, something that is desperately needed right now. The fastest way women’s sports is going to grow is if there is more money involved. The simple truth is that money talks and it talks very loudly. Leagues such as the Women’s IPL can give women’s sports more money and as a result, louder voices.