NEW ERA OF BIG BUCKS BEGINS FOR WOMEN’S CRICKET IN INDIA

With the onset of summer, the mercury is all set to rise further with the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL). As the glorious era for T20 women’s cricket got underway in Mumbai on Saturday, it was thrilling to note that the first match between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil stadium not only drew excited crowds but all tickets were sold out much before the commencement of extravagant ceremonies. Quite appropriate that the league comes forth just when Indian Women’s cricket commences its 50th anniversary to help make it become a household rage like the men’s game in the country! Remember, the league starts just a few days after Indian Women’s team lost to Australia in a tense T20 World Cup semifinal where luck deserted the Indian girls and they lost by a meagre margin of 5 runs. Indian Captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, had played a magnificent knock but got run out as her bat got stuck in the pitch as she grounded it while taking a second run. Her bizarre run out sparked a mini collapse and Indian Girls lost the opportunity to enter the finals and capture their first ever ICC Championship.

The loss hurts yet it gives Indian Women’s cricket a chance to look deeper for solutions to its problems. One of them is the depth of talent available and it is hoped that this issue may get resolved satisfactorily with the WPL giving more opportunities to younger girls to come up the ranks. While cricket has become a career opportunity for young boys growing up in smaller Indian cities, it is still a distant dream for girls since financial constraints still restrict them to take cricket as a career. But now with WPL, young girls can start dreaming of playing for the country and parents can surely ease the curbs as the returns are quite lucrative. Moreover, if men’s IPL changed the character of aggression in cricket, we can expect a similar big bang from women cricketers too. The likes of Surya Kumar Yadav, AB de Villiers, and Ben Stokes gave belligerence a new name and batsmen now play incredible shots defying gravity, swing and power. So, it may not be wrong to expect similar surprises in WIPL in coming years to take your breath away and make it a major spectator sport of magnetic attraction. Fielding too could improve in leaps and bounds due to the nature of the contest, an area where Indian Women’s cricket needs a definite improvement since it was a major reason for India’s semi-final exit. But while it is understood that competition among the best could raise standards of feminine players across the board, it may also lead to an increase in injuries and fatigue of the prominent players who have an immense workload on account of representing their nations. However, for the greater good of Women’s cricket, it may be a small cost to pay but if fitness standards and workloads are not managed judiciously, fans may see an unintentional dip in the intensity of players at international level.

The benefits of having a T20 league are evident to all, whether it’s the IPL or the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). When Harmanpreet smashed her hundred against Australia to take India to the 2017 ODI World Cup final, it changed the game in India. But few remember that her brilliant innings came only after her highly successful stint in the WBBL. WPL is likely to be a women’s counterpart to the money-spinning IPL and India’s recent glory at the inaugural U19 T20 World Cup is sure to give a big boost to Indian eves and more teens can be expected to take to the game in a big way. The WPL riches have come in just a few months after the BCCI announced pay parity for its contracted women cricketers, ensuring same match fees for men and women cricketers. With the massive investment for women’s cricket by Viacom 18 and others, the women cricketers are bound to enjoy a hefty purse. While fans of the game are ready for the 5 team and 3-week WPL extravaganza, there is still a fair way to go for the tournament to get the same kind of eyeballs as the IPL. It is up to the players and the stakeholders to make this event count and make it bigger with each year giving solid footing to the WPL’s official hashtag -#YehTohBasShuruatHai (this is just the beginning)!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

SIDDHAARTH MAHAN  The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry