"In India, sport has always been a mirror of society - and for too long, that mirror only reflected men."Across dusty grounds and grand arenas alike, India's sporting culture has long centred on men. Where crowds roared for every boundary, heroes emerged almost exclusively with short haircuts and deep voices. Young males pinned torn newspaper cutouts of Dhyan Chand near school desks, eyes fixed on golden pasts. For these boys, running fast or swinging hard felt less like a choice, more like destiny written before they could speak it. Recognition followed their wins - not just medals piling up, but neighbours gathering outside homes, honking horns at midnight. Even funding flowed toward figures who already held the spotlight, rarely shifting elsewhere. Women faced another kind of road altogether. Not walked, but carved - through doubt at home and whispers outside, tight wallets and quiet stadiums. Talent often unseen, success seldom highlighted. To pick a sport in India meant more than a job; it meant stepping into combat. Still, through each barrier, Indian women stayed present. Running, bowling, lifting, fighting - they claimed victories. With Mary Kom’s punches came PV Sindhu’s sharp smashes; Mithali Raj brought calm mastery while Harmanpreet Kaur delivered forceful strikes. Not mere participants, these athletes reshaped India’s sporting story. What separates male and female athletes in India goes beyond funding or podium finishes. Rooted deeper, it questions who even dares to imagine, then which of those visions a country chooses to see.
The Women's Premier League: How the IPL's Success Created a New Stage for Women's Cricket
For decades, women's cricket existed largely in the shadows of its male counterpart — celebrated in World Cups but otherwise starved of investment, visibility, and professional infrastructure. That changed dramatically in 2023, when India's Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) launched the Women's Premier League (WPL), a franchise T20 competition modelled directly on the Indian Premier League. In just a few seasons, the WPL has reshaped the economics and culture of women's cricket worldwide.
From the IPL Blueprint to the Women's Game
Such has been the IPL's success that the BCCI announced a new league for women's cricket — the Women's Premier League — which played its inaugural season in March 2023. The league's structure is based on the structure of the IPL, with five teams each playing against each other in a double round-robin format, and the top three teams entering the playoff stages. Before the WPL, the closest thing women's cricket had in India was the Women's T20 Challenge — a limited competition that ran from 2018 to 2022 and served as the top-tier domestic women's T20 competition before finally making way for the WPL.
A Financial Revolution
The money injected into the WPL from its very first auction was staggering by the standards of women's sport. The BCCI earned $572.5 million from the bids to own five teams in the league, while broadcast rights for the tournament went for $116.7 million. The WPL quickly became one of the most valued sports brands in the world, said to be the second most valuable women's league after the WNBA.
Player salaries reflected this seismic shift. India's Smriti Mandhana remains the most expensive player in any WPL auction, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru bidding ₹3.40 crore to acquire her services in 2023. England's Nat Sciver-Brunt joined the Mumbai Indians for 32 million rupees — ten times more than the highest salary available in the women's Hundred competition in England. These figures underlined just how transformative the WPL was for global women's cricket.
Competitive Drama on the Field
The WPL has produced compelling cricket across its four editions. Mumbai Indians, led by Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur, won the inaugural WPL title in 2023 after beating Delhi Capitals by seven wickets in the final. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, led by Smriti Mandhana, claimed the 2024 title. Mumbai Indians reclaimed their crown in 2025, beating Delhi Capitals by eight runs in the final at the Brabourne Stadium. Delhi Capitals have reached the WPL final in all four editions so far.
Since 2026, the tournament has been held between January and February with a dedicated window in the ICC Future Tours Programme — a sign that the women's game has earned its own protected space in the global cricket calendar.
A Global Stage for Women Cricketers
The WPL has become a genuinely international competition. Five overseas players can feature in the playing XI per team, including one from an associate nation, opening doors for cricketers from emerging cricketing nations. Stars from Australia, England, New Zealand, and the West Indies now compete alongside India's best, raising the overall standard of the game. Australia's Ashleigh Gardner and England's Nat Sciver-Brunt jointly hold the record as the most expensive foreign players in WPL auction history.
A Larger Conversation
The WPL's rise has not been without nuance. The highest-paid player in the IPL auction of December 2022 — English all-rounder Sam Curran — was paid five times more than the highest-paid player in the WPL auction of March 2023, Smriti Mandhana. The gender pay gap in franchise cricket remains significant, even if the WPL has narrowed the distance compared to administratively set pay scales in other leagues.
Still, the direction of travel is clear. In just four years, the WPL has given women cricketers financial security, global exposure, and the kind of competitive platform that was once unimaginable. If the IPL proved that cricket could be transformed into a global entertainment spectacle, the WPL is proving that women's cricket deserves — and can sustain — the same ambition.
References:
- Wikipedia – Women's Premier League (cricket);
- Britannica – Indian Premier League;
- The National – WPL 2023 players' salaries (Feb 2023);
- Olympics.com – WPL winners list; ESPNcricinfo – 2023 WPL Auction live blog;
- The Cricketer – WPL 2023 auction explainer;
- Indian Economic Review – Gender and remuneration in professional franchise cricket (2023);
- The National – Top 20 highest-paid women's cricketers after WPL 2025 auction