Cricket world celebrates record-breaking $800 million move for women

Cricket fans across the world have welcomed a record-setting introduction of a Women's Premier League competition, which has attracted more than $800 million in investments. Five franchises have been announced for the Women's Premier League, representing a significant expansion on the existing three-team Women's T20 Challenge.

The establishment of the preceding T20 Challenge proved to be a huge hit in India, with the nation's cricket body, the BBCI, announced the inaugural WPL competition will take place in March. The total sale price of the five WPL franchises surpassed what was paid for the original IPL teams when that competition began back in 2008.

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The owners of IPL's Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore franchises are among the five entities who purchased teams in the WPL for a combined total of more than $800 million. The Adani group made the highest bid of approximately $223m to buy the Ahmedabad franchise, while Capri Global Holdings agreed to pay $131m for Lucknow.

The BCCI has already sold the tournament's media rights for the next five years to Viacom 18 for $165m which translates into per-match-value of $1.2m. The extraordinary investment in the women's game was welcomed across the cricket world.

"It sure is HISTORIC," former Australia star Lisa Sthalekar wrote on Twitter. "The women's game breaking records already & they haven't even played a game yet. This is so exciting. Congratulations to @BCCI & all involved."

Former India captain Mithali Raj predicted "exciting times" for women's cricket, while England batter Danni Wyatt also took to Twitter to describe the dawn of the new tournament as "amazing". Many more fans on social media were thrilled by the development.

"Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural WPL broke the records of the inaugural men's IPL in 2008," tweeted BCCI secretary Jay Shah.

"This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity."

Aussie star Tahlia McGrath wins T20 Player of the Year

The establishment of the WPL will come as welcome news to Australian star Tahlia McGrath, who was named the ICC women's T20 player of the year. McGrath scored 435 runs in 16 matches at an average of 62.14 and took 13 wickets over the year, earning her the prestigious accolade ahead of India's star opener Smriti Mandhana, Pakistan allrounder Nida Dar and New Zealand captain Sophie Devine.

The award marks a spectacular rise from the 27-year-old from Adelaide, who only made her T20I debut in October 2021 but has since constantly shone in the shortest format of the game.

She began the year with a thumping unbeaten 91 off just 49 balls and three wickets against England and ended it with more exceptional performances on the tour to India.

"It's an absolute honour to win this," said McGrath, reflecting that her highlight had been winning the Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham during which she scored 128 runs at an average of 42.66.

"I'm pretty fortunate to play in the team that I do and lucky to play with some of the best players in the world. This one's pretty special."

McGrath's teammate Darcie Brown missed out on the ICC women's emerging player of the year award after being on the shortlist, with the accolade going to another pace prospect, India's Renuka Singh.

With AAP

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