The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is a culmination of the consistently superior T20 performances of women cricketers in recent years. In some T20 parameters, the Indian women’s performance in recent years has equaled or almost equaled that of the Indian men’s team. So the WPL is not a symbolic gesture to promote equal representation in cricket, but a hard-fought victory for the display of talent.
Also, the WPL is not a spontaneous idea. This is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the recent past. In 2018, BCCI launched the Women’s T20 Challenge with two teams – Trailblazers and Supernovas – led by Indian star players Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur respectively. The tournament expanded to three teams the next year. In October 2022, the BCCI introduced an “equal pay policy” for their contracted women cricketers and increased their playing fee to match that of their male counterparts.
The number of T20 games played by Indian women has also steadily increased over the years, peaking in the last season. In the 2022/23 season, India has already played 23 T20 international matches, the most ever. Diagram 1 shows the number of international T20 matches played by India and all teams combined. Both curves were on a near-vertical rise prior to COVID-19. After the peak of the pandemic, the increase has continued. So interest in the game’s shorter format has grown significantly.
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Diagram 2 plots the number of T20I matches played by select teams per season on the vertical axis. For example, India played 23 T20Is in the 2022/23 season, the most of any team in a season (the circle above).
Chart 2 also shows selected teams’ T20I win percentage (wins/games) by season on the horizontal axis. In the above two seasons – 2022-23 and 2019-20 – India’s winning percentage was 56% and 73% respectively. On the other hand, Australia team won 92% of games played in 2022-23 season. England have won nine games out of ten in the same season. With that in mind, it was not surprising that many Australian and English players dominated the WPL auction.
That being said, Indian women have steadily improved their hit rate in T20s over the years. Diagram 3 shows the seasonal average runs per over (RPO) scored by Indian women’s and men’s teams in T20. The gap in RPO between the men’s and women’s teams has steadily narrowed. For the past four seasons, India’s RPO has been above seven in women’s T20 games.
A similar trend can also be seen in the limits achieved. The gap in goals scored per game between the Indian men and women in T20Is is rapidly closing as shown in Diagram 4.
Additionally, the monetary compensation offered by the WPL/IPL is a definite morale booster, especially for Indian women. Smriti Mandhana’s auction price was 580% higher than her BCCI one-year player contract, while Viral Kohli’s case was only 114% higher, as shown in Table 5.
The WPL has also helped revitalize the careers of relatively older players such as Saika Ishaque, who currently tops the tournament’s wicket charts despite not yet having to make her India debut. It has also helped younger players like Shefali Verma, who currently hit the most sixes in the WPL, to establish their dominance and secure their place on the Indian team.
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Source: Statusguru by ESPNcricinfo, Women’s Premier League website, Indian Premier League website, BCCI press releases
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